


What Sam Says

by delightfulalot



Series: What Sam Says [1]
Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: F/M, Mystery, kind of spy fic?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-05-29
Updated: 2003-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-03 05:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 25,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1732322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delightfulalot/pseuds/delightfulalot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rory hasn't talked to Lorelai in six months, but Lorelai's sure she's coming home for the first snow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First Snow

Rory yawned and opened her eyes. A nondescript motel ceiling stared back at her, and she groaned. Rolling over, she fell from the bed and stood, doing everything gracefully somehow. She pulled a pair of overalls on—her mother would ridicule her to no end later, but she didn't care. She slipped her sock-clad feet into reasonable boots and stuffed her clothes scattered all across the room into her travel bag. Slipping her bag over her shoulder, she grabbed her coat from its place on the chair near the door and left the room.

She wandered down the outdoor hallway of the motel in the dark, the only lights coming from the completely abandoned pool in the middle of the complex. She shivered slightly as she walked down the stairs and made her way to the front desk. A young man was snoozing in the chair behind the desk, and she smiled slightly at him as she placed her key card and enough cash to cover one night on the desk, before turning and walking out of the motel.

She made her way to her car, an old convertible, and threw her travel bag in the back, on top of the other boxes that were making the cross-country trip with her. She slid her arms into her coat and tried to button it. After a five-minute struggle with the buttons, she gave up, sighed disgustedly, and got into her car. As she started the car, Sam Phillips started singing to her, a tape that had been stuck in there for the past two days. Rory smiled slightly and pulled out of the motel parking lot, pressing the button to make the top go up as she eased onto the highway.

\--

Lorelai walked away from the window and started pacing around her living room again. She hadn't heard from her daughter in almost six months, and then suddenly she'd received a call, saying that her daughter would be there soon, in time for the first snow, and that was all.

Now she was pacing around her room, freaked, because this was her daughter, and her daughter had been pushing her away for over a year now, and had just recently—six months—gotten rid of her completely. Lorelai hadn't even gotten to tell her daughter that she'd started a relationship, a very good relationship, and she thought that this relationship was going to work.

Only, her boyfriend didn't like it when she called it a "relationship"—he said it made him feel pressured, as if he had to "do something" to really be in a "relationship". And he always used air quotes when he said those three words. Lorelai would just grin, push his air quotes away from her, and kiss him, and he'd usually drop the whole thing.

\--

Rory's stomach growled, and she patted it reassuringly, leaving one hand on the steering wheel. It continued growling, however, and she groaned, knowing that since she was on a back highway, her best bet for food had probably been the crappy motel she'd left twenty minutes ago. But the crappy motel hadn't had any good food, so Rory hadn't eaten—for about a day now, she realized. Her stomach realized it too, and wouldn't stop growling.

Rory leaned over and turned Sam up louder, hoping that if she sang loud enough, Rory could forget about her hunger, and just get to her destination.

\--

Lorelai groaned loudly and walked out of her house, leaving her jacket on the coat rack.

Snow. It was snowing, and Rory wasn't here yet.

Lorelai shivered and wrapped her arms around her as tightly as she could, not warming herself up at all. She almost cried as the snow continued, the first snow of the season, falling all around her, dropping at her feet, settling in her hair and on her eyelashes, and basically reminding her that this was supposed to be her favorite time of year, the first snow, but it wasn't.

It was also the twenty-third anniversary of Rory's birth, but that didn't bring comfort either.

Lorelai groaned again, wiped the almost-tears from the corners of her eyes, and headed back inside, locking the front door behind her, locking the snow out.

 


	2. The First Words

Rory sighed as she looked around her car. It seemed so small with the top up, and all her crap in the backseat. She pushed the button that caused the top to go back down, and shivered a little as the cool air hit her completely. She turned the heater off—it was useless now. Sam continued singing, and Rory's stomach continued growling, so finally she pulled off to the side of the road and got out of the car. She popped the trunk and dug through a few bags before finally coming up with an unopened package of Chips Ahoy cookies; she tore open the package and the first bag and stuffed three in her mouth.

"Happy now?" she asked her stomach, carrying the cookies back to the car and getting back in. She drove fifteen feet before she realized the trunk was open, and she got back out of the car, picked up the few bags that had spilled out, and closed the trunk.

\--

Lorelai leaned against her front door, refusing to cry as the tears burned the back of her eyelids. She continued squeezing her eyes shut as tight as she could, but eventually a tear leaked out, revealing her, so she pushed herself off of the door and headed upstairs, disgusted with herself. As she kicked off her shoes and slid into bed, she glanced out the window—quickly—and noticed the snow. Another tear leaked out and she buried her head deep into her pillow, hoping that in the morning it wouldn't be soaked.

\--

Rory pulled up to the most familiar house in the world. All of the lights were off…well, she'd suspected that as soon as she'd driven into the snow. Rory was a little sad—one of the first emotions she'd really felt in a long time—because she'd made a promise to her mother, and hadn't even been able to keep it. She leaned into the backseat, grabbed her bag, and left the car, shutting the door softly behind her, so as not to wake up the town.

As the snow settled into her hair, Rory tried to pull her coat tighter around her, and wished once again that she could button it. But she couldn't, and she'd just have to get over it, she told herself. She walked up the porch steps, and then tried the doorknob, surprised that it was locked. She looked around for the turtle the key was kept in, but it had disappeared, so she shrugged and rang the doorbell.

The lights in the upstairs bedroom came on, and soon Rory heard her mother coming down the stairs, groaning as she ran into things in the dark. Finally, she reached the door, and unlocked it, not pausing to see who it was first. She pulled open the door and almost fell down in shock as she looked upon her daughter for the first time in almost a year.

Rory's beautiful long brown hair had been chopped off haphazardly, and hung around her chin in slightly different lengths. She was wearing a dark blue—or black, Lorelai couldn't tell in the dark—light jacket, not buttoned over her waist.

And her waist. It was obviously at least five months pregnant, only slightly showy, but definitely pregnant. Lorelai's eyes focused on her daughter's pregnant stomach for only a few moments, before looking back into Rory's eyes. She wracked her brain to say something, _anything_ , to her daughter.

"You're wearing overalls?"

Rory laughed slightly at her mother's first words to her in six months, and then stopped, remembering why she hadn't seen her mother in that long. She looked away from her mother and gazed down at the floor of the porch, focusing on the wood.

Lorelai stared at her daughter, amazed that she was here, amazed that she had shown up, amazed that she'd chopped her hair off, amazed that she was… _pregnant_ …. Lorelai gulped, freaked once again, but now at the fact that her baby was going to have a baby….

And whose was it? Lorelai had a slight idea, but she almost hoped that it wasn't him, that Rory wasn't connected to him in any way, because she knew, in the bottom of her soul, that if Rory was still connected to him, it could only mean bad things.

But then Lorelai thought over the things that had happened since Rory had met him, and focused on the fact that this was the first contact in six months, so hopefully  _he_  was gone, and that's why she'd contacted her.

"Come in," Lorelai said in a motherly tone of voice, thrilled that she could be motherly again, and stepped aside to let her daughter in.

"Thank you," Rory said, sounding like a guest in her mother's own home. Lorelai was a little sad at this, but tried to hide it by shaking her head.

"Let's go sit on the couch. Reminisce."

"Okay," Rory said quietly. "But…what about the snow?"

Lorelai shook her head again. "I've seen it before."

Rory realized the impact of these words and nodded.

"Okay," she repeated, following her mother into the living room.


	3. The First Mystery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashbacks in italics!

Rory's cell phone sang as soon as she sat next to her mother on the couch. She dug it from the front pocket of her overalls, flipped it open, and closed it with a satisfied look on her face.

"So…how's Tom?" Rory turned to her mother.

"Who was that?" Lorelai asked, pointing at the phone.

"No one," Rory shook her head. "Is there still a Tom?"

"Uh…yeah, there's a Tom. But how'd you know?"

"I checked my messages when I went through my apartment."

"Oh." Lorelai grew quiet. "Sweetie, where have you been?"

"It's a long story," Rory said as way of an answer. It was, after all, almost three in the morning.

"I've got all the time in the world," Lorelai said softly. Rory nodded.

\--

_Rory kissed her mother quickly on the cheek._

_"Happy birthday. I gotta go, he's waiting in the car."_

_"Oh," Lorelai said softly. "Okay."_

_"Call you later!" Rory yelled, running backwards down the porch steps, waving._

_"I'm so sure he's gonna let you do that," Lorelai whispered to Rory as she climbed into his car. She sighed as the car drove off. "He hasn't let you talk to me for longer than five minutes in the last six months—ever since I met him. That bastard. He's a bastard for keeping you from me, and he's a bastard for making you fall in love with him."_

_\--_

"Well, after we left here, we went back to my apartment. To sleep, you know. And then the next morning, he woke me up at six—I tried to yell at him, but he wouldn't let me. He told me we had to leave right now, and so he let me throw a few clothes into a bag, and then we left."

"And went where?" Lorelai asked.

"The airport. I had no idea what he was doing, and the next thing I know, we're on a private jet. And he kissed me and left to go to the cockpit, and I didn't see him till we landed. In France."

"France. Why?"

"I still dunno. He helped me off, kissed me, and pointed me in the direction of this young guy I'd never seen before. The young guy walked over and said, 'I am here to take you to the Hotel.'" Rory paused in remembering. "He took me to the hotel."

Lorelai was staring at Rory's stomach, wondering when it would come into the picture. "How far along are you?" she asked suddenly.

"Huh? Oh, five months. Don't worry, it's not his."

Lorelai breathed a visible sigh of relief, and Rory slightly smiled.

"What happened at the hotel?" Lorelai asked, hoping to get back to the story.

"Lots." Rory answered.

\--

_"We are at the hotel," the young man said in a very thick French accent, turning to Rory in the cab. "I must leave you now. You will go inside and tell the front desk that you are Mark Miller's guest, and they will take it from there."_

_"Okay." Rory nodded. "Thank you."_

_"Don't thank me. I am paid for my services. If I were not, I would not be here."_

_"Oh. Goodbye." Rory slid from the cab, and as soon as she closed the door, it sped off. She watched after it, almost sadly, turned to the hotel, and marched in, still clutching her bag._

_"Hello. I'm Mark Miller's guest," she told the man behind the front desk. His face paled considerably at the mention of Mark Miller, and she wondered why her boyfriend's name could do that to someone. The man yelled commands to a few bellboys, in French, and even though Rory had taken French in high school, she only caught a few phrases, the most prominent of which was, "She is very important. Very important."_

_Rory wondered once again what she was doing in France, where Mark was, and why these people were so convinced that she was important. She fervently wished to call her mother, but couldn't, because she'd given Lorelai the brush-off only twenty four hours ago, and Mark didn't like it when Rory called Lorelai a lot, anyway._

_"This way, Mademoiselle," the first man said, gesturing for Rory to follow him. A bellboy grabbed Rory's bag from in her hand, and another slid her purse from her shoulder. Rory almost tried to get them back, before realizing that they were indeed bellboys, and they were following her and the older man into the elevator._

_"What the hell am I doing here?" Rory muttered to herself as the doors closed and the elevator started moving up._


	4. The First Coffee

_"This is your suite, Mademoiselle," the man from the front desk said grandly, pushing the ornate white doors open and making a sweeping hand gesture._

_"Whoa," Rory whispered, stepping onto the plush white carpet, and looking around at the large front room of the suite. "Wow," she whispered again as she turned a corner and found the other part of the rooms._

_"I'm glad you're pleased, Mademoiselle. If you're pleased, so will Mr. Miller be." The man nodded and exited the room._

_Rory walked after him to the doors and almost opened them, to ask the man what Mark had to do with everything here…but she lost confidence, and instead picked up her bag and purse and walked into one of the bedrooms to unpack._

\--

"And where was  _Mark_  during all this?" Lorelai asked, forcing the name out as if the taste it left behind hurt her mouth. Rory shrugged.

"I dunno. I haven't seen him since the plane landed in France."

"Really, now. That's interesting."

Rory nodded, watching as her mother mused.

"Why do I feel like I'm in the end of some detective movie?" Lorelai asked suddenly.

"That's the way I've felt for the past six months." Rory tried to stifle a yawn, looking away from her mother, but Lorelai noticed it.

"Hey. You tired?"

Rory shook her head, and then nodded slightly.

"You should get to bed. You've gotta keep up your strength, now."

"Right." Rory said, pushing herself off of the couch, and starting towards her old room.

"And you can finish the story in the morning."

Rory turned and smiled at her mother, who smiled back. Rory shook her head, still smiling, and walked into her room.

Lorelai watched her daughter leave, and then pushed herself off of the couch. She mused the newest news of Mark as she turned the lights out in the living room and headed towards bed, for the sleep she'd wanted earlier but that had gotten interrupted.

"Mark," she whispered to herself, shaking her head as she walked up the stairs. "You have been and always will be a bastard to me."

\--

_"I'm sure she'll be here in a minute," Lorelai smiled to her parents, who smiled tightly back and sipped their wine. 'Where are you?' She sent the words to Rory via their mind connection that she hoped they suddenly had, trying to force Rory to show up at her birthday dinner, with the alleged boyfriend she'd been spending so much time with in the past month, that Lorelai still hadn't met._

_Lorelai sighed audibly, and her mother noticed._

_"Lorelai—" Emily started to lecture her daughter, but Lorelai tuned her out, turning her thoughts to her own daughter instead._

_Suddenly her cell phone sang 'happy birthday' from in her purse—a song she'd put on there two years ago come April, and still hadn't changed._

_"If you think about answering that—" Emily threatened, but Lorelai smiled slightly and pulled the phone from her purse._

_"Might be Rory," she offered as a slight apology. "Hello?" she asked, flipping the phone open without looking at the Caller ID._

_"Mom," came the static filled answer._

_"Rory," Lorelai almost sighed in relief. "Where are you?"_

_"I'm—static—with Mark. I—static—you—static—here."_

_"No, I'm at my parents."_

_"Static—what?"_

_"My parents," Lorelai practically yelled into the phone._

_"I'm—static—home—static—here?"_

_"Sure. I'll be right there." Lorelai wasn't sure if Rory had said she was at the Stars Hollow house, her New Haven apartment, or right outside Richard and Emily's. But she wasn't gonna stay around here for too long, that was sure._

_"Sorry, Mom, Dad, I gotta go."_

_"Lorelai—" Emily started, but she was interrupted by Richard._

_"Sure thing, Lorelai. Goodbye. We'll see you soon, I suppose. Tell Rory we said happy birthday, and hello."_

_"Can do, Dad. Bye, Mom." Lorelai ducked out of the room and walked as quickly as she could from the house._

_"Richard—" she could hear Emily getting ready to have an argument with Richard, and she grinned. Dinner theater. Too bad she couldn't stick around._

_Taking a guess, Lorelai headed the half hour back to Stars Hollow and pulled up to her house. Sure enough, a strange car was parked in the street, and lights were on in the living room. Lorelai silently applauded her fabulous psychic skills and headed into her house._

_"I'm home, babe!" she called as she walked in._

_"Mom. This is Mark," Rory said immediately, pointing to the young man seated next to her on the couch._

_"Oh. Hi." Lorelai stepped forward to shake the man's hand. He shook it, twice, and then dropped it. Lorelai almost yelled, but then noticed the way her daughter was staring at this guy—like she was in love. Lorelai sighed._

_"Happy Birthday, sweetie. From my parents, too."_

_"Oh, thanks, Mom." Rory said quickly._

_"Yeah, I would have told you earlier today, but you didn't call, and you weren't there when I called."_

_"Yeah, I was…busy," Rory avoided._

_"I figured. You've been pretty busy for a while. You haven't been home for a month, and we haven't talked in almost a week."_

_"Yeah. I'm sorry. School, and whatnot." Rory shrugged._

_"Right." Lorelai looked at Mark, who had his arm protectively around Rory's shoulder, and was every once in a while shooting a dirty look at Lorelai. "Whatnot."_

_"Yeah. You know. Now, I hate to do this, but we've got to go."_

_"What? But you just got here!"_

_"No, you just got here. We've been here for a while, and we've got to get going back. Bye." Rory kissed her mother quickly on the cheek and left._

_"Bye." Lorelai said stupidly, watching as Rory and Mark got into the car and drove off. "Well, so much for birthday storytelling. Birthday movie night. Birthday talk." Lorelai ripped off her coat, scarf, and hat and threw them around the living room. "So much for birthday anything with the woman who made this your birthday."_

_Lorelai groaned disgustedly and started walking upstairs, her gaze passing a window as she did so. She did a double take and walked back downstairs, to stand on the landing._

_It was snowing._

_"So much for birthday midnight snow walks."_

_\--_

"Good morning," Rory said as Lorelai walked into the kitchen at nine-thirty the next morning.

Lorelai just groaned in response.

"Some things never change," Rory half-laughed. Lorelai nodded and poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Thanks for the coffee," Lorelai said, waving her already half-empty cup around.

"It's decaf." Rory pointed out.

"I know," Lorelai said, polishing off the cup. "And that's why we're headed to Luke's!"

Rory's face fell.

"Oh," Lorelai said softly. "Not ready yet, huh?"

Rory shook her head.

"Okay. That's okay. You stay here. I'll go get coffee—the good kind for me, the crappy kind for you—and breakfast. Sound good?"

Rory nodded. "Thanks."

"It's nothing. You just have to promise to finish the story for me."

Rory nodded.

"And let me straighten out your hair. It's been driving me crazy!"

Rory half-laughed. "Sure, Mom. Anything."

"Okay, sweets. See you in a few." Lorelai waved and left the house. Rory bit her lip and looked around the kitchen, her mind jumping to one of the few conversations she'd had with her mother in this kitchen in between the time Mark took over her life and the time he left it.

_\--_

_"Rory, he's taken over your life! Can't you see that?" Lorelai yelled—but in a concerned way._

_"No, Mom. He's just involved. No one else has ever gotten this involved."_

_"That's cause he plans your entire life out! He says who you talk with and how long, and sometimes even what you talk about!"_

_"No, Mom. It's not like that."_

_"Yes, it is." Lorelai sighed. "When was the last time you saw me?"_

_"Mom—"_

_"No, listen. And answer. When was the last time you saw me—you, by yourself, no Mark?"_

_Rory thought. "Late August. Over four months ago."_

_"And when did you start going out with Mark?"_

_Rory sighed. "Mom, we've been through this—"_

_"Rory! Think about it."_

_"September. Four months ago."_

_"Any kind of connection?"_

_"Mom, it doesn't mean any—"_

_"Yes, it does! Can't you see?"_

_"No, I can't see! And I don't see what you have against Mark! He's wonderful, and he loves me, and I love him, so you should just accept him and get over it!"_

_"Has he told you he loves you?" Lorelai asked softly._

_Rory sighed and left, slamming the door behind her. As the house shook with the force with which she'd closed the door, she leaned against the outdoor wall. The truth was, he hadn't ever told her he'd loved her. She just…knew it somehow._

_Rory shook her head. He did love her. He did. Lorelai was just planting seeds of doubt in her mind. Yeah. That was it._

_She pushed herself off of the wall and walked away from her mother's house, for one of the last times._

_\--_

"I'm back," Lorelai announced, walking into the house forty five minutes later. "And you would not believe how long it took me to convince Luke to sell me the food. Finally I had to threaten to leave his business forever. He, of course, saw directly through the threat, but he let me have the food anyway." Lorelai walked into the kitchen and noticed the faraway look on Rory's face. "Hey. You okay?"

Rory shook her head. "I'm fine."

"Okay. You sure?"

"Yeah. Nothing to worry about."

"Good," Lorelai said, unpacking her paper bag. She reached an item near the bottom and smiled before lifting it out. "Now, I hope you don't hate me, but I was walking by the bookstore, and they had this in the window."

Lorelai handed Rory a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting. Rory grinned.

"Now, I haven't read it, but I've heard it's the best baby to-do book out there.  _And_  Hugh Grant read it in 'Nine Months', when he was trying to win over Julianne Moore, so it's gotta be okay."

"What did Andrew say when you bought it?" Rory asked.

"He didn't say anything, just raised his eyebrows."

"You'll be the town gossip before noon."

"Ah, Miss Patty's done worse to me before. There was a short period a few weeks ago where I was a convict."

"What? How'd she get that idea?"

Lorelai grinned. "I visited my parents for dinner, but I forgot they were gonna be on vacation, so I went into town and shopped around for a while. Turns out I parked in an illegal parking zone, and my car was towed." Lorelai grinned wider. "The nice people at the Hartford P.D. brought me home."


	5. The First Mention of the Guy

"You ready to talk yet, sweetie?" Lorelai asked as Rory finished off her pancakes. Rory swallowed, and nodded.

"Where was I?" she asked, taking a sip of her coffee.

"You were unpacking in the hotel."

"Ah. Okay. So, I unpacked—that took about two minutes—and then I sprawled on one of the beds and started watching TV. But everything was in French, and I didn't understand any of it. Unfortunately, high school French only takes you so far."

Lorelai nodded. "I took Spanish. Only thing I remember is  _tengo hambre_. I forget what it means, though. But continue. Everything on TV was in French."

"Right. I eventually settled on an episode of  _Friends_ I'd seen before."

"Which one?"

"Mom."

"Right. The story."

"So I was watching  _Friends_  when there was a knock on the door of the suite. I walked over to the door and asked who it was."

"Who was it?"

\--

_"Mademoiselle, please open the door!" a voice asked desperately. Being that she knew nobody, Rory answered, but only opened one door, and only opened it a little bit. The young man from before, in the cab, came bursting through._

_"You are in trouble. You must leave at once," he declared, running through the suite and into the bedroom with the TV on. Rory followed him, a little slower._

_"You have already unpacked? But why?" the man practically wailed, gesturing to Rory's empty bag._

_"I thought I was going to stay here for a while," Rory offered as an explanation. The man immediately started shaking his head._

_"Non, non, non," he repeated over and over. "Pack again. We must leave as soon as possible."_

_Rory nodded and repacked. The man settled onto the bed, half-watching her, and half-watching the television. As Rory turned the TV off and they began a brisk walk from the room, the man turned to her and said, "That Joey. He is so funny."_

_Rory nodded, and the man continued steering her away from the suite. They bypassed the elevator and ran down the stairs, slowing to a quick walk as they entered into the lobby, with the crowds of people all around. The man suddenly grabbed Rory's hand and pulled her with him out the door, ignoring the man at the front desk, who was yelling about Mr. Miller's guest._

_"Where are we going?" Rory asked as the man steered her around the building to a dark alleyway._

_The man shook his head. "Mr. Miller says that you are to stay with his friend."_

_"Who's his friend?" Rory asked, confused. Suddenly a limousine pulled up and the back door swung open. The man pushed Rory in the small of her back and guided her into the back of the limousine._

_"Goodbye, Mademoiselle," the man nodded, slammed the door, and the car started moving. It was incredibly dark inside the car, and the windows were tinted, so the late afternoon sun wasn't coming through. Rory glanced around her and spotted a button labeled, "Driver Separation Down," and pressed it._

_The window directly in front of her rolled down and Rory saw half of the driver. He glanced in his rearview mirror._

_"Curious, aren't we?" he asked in a perfect American accent._

_"You're American?" Rory asked, surprised._

_"Answering a question with a question. Classic sign of avoidance."_

_"I'm not avoiding anything," Rory said, annoyed. "And besides, I thought it was a hypothetical question. And you didn't answer my question."_

_"I assume yours is also hypothetical."_

_"You know what happens when you assume: You make an 'ass' of 'u' and 'me'."_

_"It wasn't hypothetical?"_

_"Alright, fine, it was hypothetical. Happy now?" Rory crossed her arms. God, this guy could push her buttons._

_"Delirious." There was a pause. "All right then. Any questions you want to ask?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Ask away."_

_Rory thought. What was the most pressing question on her mind? "Who are you?"_

_"Your driver—or rather, Mark Miller's hired driver. At least for today."_

_What did that mean? "Where are we going?"_

_"A safe place."_

_"With Mark's friend?"_

_The driver paused. "Yes."_

_"Who is Mark's friend?"_

_"An old friend of yours, I'm told."_

_This piqued her curiosity. "Who?"_

_"I'm not allowed to tell. Not till we're at the safe place."_

_"Oh." Rory leaned back into her seat. "Are we there yet?" she asked, after a pause._

_The driver laughed. "No, not yet. But we will be there soon."_

_\--_

"Can I take a break?" Rory asked.

"Sure, sweetie. What do you want to do?"

"Well, first I want to go to the bathroom. And then I was thinking we could wander around town."

"You sure you're ready?"

"Yeah." Rory nodded, and then pushed herself from the table.

"Wait," Lorelai called out. "You know people are gonna ask who the father is."

Rory ducked her head and rubbed her hand over her stomach. "Maybe we won't wander just yet."

"Okay," Lorelai agreed softly. "But you can take your time, sweetie."

"I know." Rory nodded and headed to the bathroom.

\--

_"We're here," the driver announced, pulling to a stop at a curb outside the Paris International Airport._

_"The airport again?" Rory asked almost desperately._

_"Yup. But this time we're headed for an English speaking country."_

_"'We'?"_

_"Yes, 'we'. Geez, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to get rid of me."_

_"I don't even know you."_

_"Yes, you do."_

_"What?" Rory asked, but the driver was already out of the limo. Seconds later, he opened her door and offered his hand._

_"Shall we?"_

_"Sure," Rory said, taking his hand and climbing from the limo, looking around at the exact same airport she'd arrived at not long ago. She sighed, slightly, and allowed herself to be pulled by the driver—who was still holding her hand—through the airport, to a gate where another private jet was waiting. The driver pulled her onto the jet and settled her into a seat, and then disappeared for a minute. When he returned, the engines were turned on, and he had changed from his driver outfit to jeans and a t-shirt. He sat in the seat across from Rory and she got her first good look at him. The blue eyes seemed familiar, but the dark brown hair was entirely unknown to her._

_And then he smirked, and winked, and she gasped._

_"Tristan?" she asked, and he nodded._

_\--_

"Tristan DuGrey?" Lorelai asked incredulously.

Rory nodded. "Yep. Tristan DuGrey. Sophomore and junior year at Chilton. The most annoying person known to man."

"And you were stuck with him on a plane."

"Exactly." Rory nodded. There was a pause.

"Is he the father?" Lorelai asked, her eyes grazing over Rory's stomach for about the two thousandth time since Rory had shown up on her doorstep less than twelve hours before.

Rory bit her lip.


	6. The Second Phone Call

"Is Tristan the father?" Lorelai asked, her eyes grazing over Rory's stomach for about the two thousandth time since Rory had shown up on her doorstep less than twelve hours before.

Rory bit her lip.

"Rory?" Lorelai asked, semi-desperately. "Is he?"

Rory shook her head, slightly, and Lorelai let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. "So, who is?"

Rory stared over her mother's shoulder at an invisible spot on the kitchen wall, and then blushed slightly and ducked her head. Suddenly there was a burst of mechanical music from Rory's room and she leapt from the table and retrieved her cell-phone. She didn't answer it however and walked back to the kitchen with the small gadget in her hand.

"Who is it?" Lorelai asked, remembering the phone call Rory had received last night, but hadn't answered.

Rory just stared at the phone, trying to decide which conversation she wanted less—the one with her mother about the father, or the one with…him. Finally she shook her head and handed the phone to her mother.

"It's him."

Lorelai stared at Rory, hoping for a little more identification beyond, 'it's him,' but she didn't receive any, so she flipped the phone open and lifted it tentatively to her ear, almost as if it were a bomb of some sort.

"Hello?"

\--

_"Where are we going?" Rory asked as she looked out the window of the jet to see sea, sea, and more sea._

_"I told you. An English speaking country." Tristan smirked. Now that Rory knew it was Tristan, she really couldn't stand him._

_"Great. That really narrows it down." Rory glared at Tristan and crossed her arms across her chest. "Why are you here?"_

_"I'm Mark's friend."_

_Rory scoffed. "Trust Mark to make friends with Tristan DuGrey."_

_"I'm hurt, Mary." Tristan said, holding his hand over his heart and making puppy dog eyes at her. She groaned disgustedly and picked up the pillow from the seat next to her._

_"You're an arrogant ass," she responded, throwing the pillow at him._

_"And you like it," he argued, ducking._

_"Never."_

_"Never say never."_

_"Back to cliché spouting, are we?"_

_"'Back' to it? I never started it."_

_"'Curious, aren't we?'" Rory mocked._

_"That's not a cliché."_

_"It might as well be."_

_"You're just mad cause I left and never returned."_

_"Oh, yeah, Tristan. Exactly. You see, I was always secretly in love with you."_

_"Finally, a confession from Mary Gilmore! I've been waiting. Then again, I always knew it."_

_"Shut up, Tristan."_

_"Tell me: how long after I left did you finally break up with Bag Boy?"_

_"A year later."_

_"Oh." Tristan was a little thrown off, but not too much. "And why did the perfect couple break it off?"_

_"If you must know," Rory started defensively, "because…of someone else." She got a little quieter at the mention of Jess._

_"Ah. For him or you?"_

_"For me." Rory stated simply._

_"Who?" Tristan asked._

_"Someone you don't know. Jess."_

_"And how long were you with Jess?"_

_Rory calculated quickly. "Seven months, I guess. Although, the demise of our relationship started way before it actually ended."_

_"Oh, really?" Tristan raised his eyebrows. "What happened?"_

_Rory shrugged. "I don't know. We were…really happy to be together for a while, and then…he got distant."_

_"Sucks when they get distant, huh?"_

_Rory nodded._

_"Yep. I've used the trick a few times myself."_

_Rory groaned and stood up from her seat. She shoved Tristan and walked to the back, where there were some more seats. Tristan knew well enough to leave her alone, and so the next time they spoke, they had landed._

_In New York City._

_\--_

"Hello?" Lorelai answered Rory's phone.

"L—Lorelai?" the voice on the other end asked, shocked.

"Yes…who's this?"

"This…this is Jess."

"Mariano?" Lorelai asked, ten thousand times more shocked than Jess had been moments before.

"Yeah." Jess responded simply. "I—is Rory there?"

Lorelai covered the mouthpiece of the phone with her hand and mouthed to her daughter, 'are you here?' Rory shook her head no, and when Lorelai opened her mouth to protest, Rory mouthed, 'no.' very deliberately. Lorelai shrugged and turned her attention back to the phone.

"No. Why?"

"Well, it's something that I need to talk to her about. Just her. Alone." Jess paused, and then continued nervously, "You don't wanna kill me, do you?"

Lorelai shot her daughter a strange look, and then said into the phone. "I'm not sure yet."

Jess let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Uh…say hi to Luke for me." He hung up.

Lorelai stared at the phone for a second, and then turned the same stare to Rory.

"Rory…"

"You don't understand," Rory said defensively. "It was…weird, seeing him again."

"You saw him again?!"

"Uh…yeah."

\--

_"We're here," Tristan announced, throwing the words to the back of the plane, as the jet touched down._

_"Where is 'here'?" Rory asked, looking up from her Literature textbook. It was the only book she'd had a chance to grab before Mark had flown her off to France. Rory wasn't sure if she was going to make it back to school in the next month, the last remaining month of her college career, but she'd decided to study, nonetheless._

_"New York," Tristan said with a glint in his eyes. He exited the plane before Rory and held a hand out for her to follow him down the stairs. She took it—listlessly—and walked down the staircase after Tristan. He continued holding her hand as he led her to a waiting limo, parked near an airplane gate in a spot marked, "Tourist Buses Only". He allowed her to get in first, and then slid in after her. Immediately the limo started moving. Rory looked away from Tristan and gazed around her new surroundings. Her eyes caught a black phone set into the bar and she leaned forward and tried to grab it._

_"Uh-uh," Tristan said, grabbing Rory's arms seconds away from the phone. "Mark said no phone calls. Especially to your mother."_

_Rory sighed and leaned back into her seat. She tried once more to get the phone—with the same results—before giving up entirely and scooting as close to the window and as far from Tristan as she could._

_'I'm sorry, Mom,' she tried to communicate telepathically. 'I tried. I'll try again later.'_

_\--_

"Rory, sweetie, where exactly is this story getting us? So you landed in New York. So Tristan's a big ol' interfering ass. I get that. What I don't get is what this has to do with Jess, and what the hell this has to do with Mark, why Jess is 'him', and who the father of your baby is!"

"I'm getting to that. Calm down. I'll get there soon."

"Get there faster."

\--

_"What the hell is the holdup?" Tristan asked forty minutes later, after spending thirty of them not moving in midnight traffic._

_"Don't look at me," Rory said, holding her hands up in defense. Tristan rolled his eyes and picked up the black phone. Without dialing, someone answered the other side, and Tristan started a conversation._

_"What's the holdup? I've got a very important delivery…" Tristan listened, and Rory reeled at the fact that he had just called her a delivery. "Miller won't be happy about this. He'll give you hell. I'll give you hell. Just find out what the goddamn holdup is." Tristan hung up quickly, with a satisfied look on his face, and Rory shook her head and looked out the window, rolling it down slightly so she could see the tips of the buildings in the New York skyline._

_The last time she had been there was right after Lorelai had taken her to Europe. Their plane had experienced technical difficulties and they'd been rerouted through New York, instead of back to Hartford. Lorelai and Rory had taken advantage of the five hour delay to stop by Sephora, and then Rory had shown Lorelai the record store Jess had shown Rory when she'd shown up in Washington Square Park near the end of her junior year of high school._

_The black phone beeped, once, twice, and Tristan picked it up wordlessly. He nodded, said, "Congratulations. You've just kept your job for one more day," and hung up._

_"What was the holdup?" Rory asked, even as the car started moving._

_Tristan shrugged. "Some movie."_

_"Oh." Rory nodded and looked back out the window. Within five minutes they'd reached the movie set, and Rory rolled down her window a little more, so as to see movie stars. Who she saw, however, was a shock in itself._

_"Jess?" she asked, throwing the car door open as the limo slowed down for a red light. "Jess Mariano!" she called, cupping her hands around her mouth. He turned around, faltered a minute from shock, and then smiled. A real, genuine smile. One that Rory hadn't seen since right after they'd gotten together, so very long ago. She ignored Tristan yelling at her from the limousine and ran directly to Jess and threw her arms around his neck._

_He returned the hug._

_\--_

"What was Jess doing there?"

"Turns out that while he was living in L.A., he made friends with this girl who wanted to be an actress, only she couldn't get a job, cause no one wanted a girl who looked and acted like her. So she got Jess to write a movie for her."

"And he obliged?"

"Yep. And then they got this friend of theirs, a film student at UCLA, to produce it, while Jess directed it, and they filmed half of it as a student film for this guy. He showed it to his teacher, who had network contacts, and the next thing the three of them knew, they were making a multi-million dollar movie."

"Wow.  _E! True Hollywood Story_ at its best."

"Exactly. That's what I told him, too. I also told him to create a bit of scandal on the set, so he could have his own Hollywood story as soon as possible. So, he suggested that the writer/director disappeared for a few days. And, then we did."

"'We'?" Lorelai asked.

"Yeah," Rory blushed slightly. "That's also why he was calling. It's kind of a big deal. I should probably tell you about it."

"Yeah." Lorelai crossed her arms across her chest and leveled her gaze at her daughter. "You should."


	7. The Second Snow, Kinda

_"What are you doing here?" Jess asked, his arms still around Rory._

_"Uh, it's a long story," Rory non-answered, glancing back over her shoulder at Tristan, who was still sitting in the limousine, but half-in, half-out, yelling vague threats her way. "What about you, what are you doing back in New York? And at a movie set, no less."_

_"Another long story," Jess said vaguely, letting go of Rory a little, so he could look at her. "Involving producers, directors, stars, and a multi-million dollar movie."_

_"Wow. Yours?"_

_"Yep. I wrote it, I'm directing it. My friend's starring in it; my other friend's producing it, and already passed a course in UCLA cause of it."_

_"Wow. 'E! True Hollywood Story' at its best."_

_Jess laughed. "I never thought of it like that."_

_"You know," Rory started, leaning closer to Jess again, "if you create a little scandal on the set, you're almost guaranteed to be on E!'s all new line-up in less than a year."_

_"Oh, really? And what do you suggest?"_

_"You're the big-time Hollywood writer," Rory shrugged._

_"How 'bout the writer/director disappearing for a few days?"_

_"Perfect." Rory grinned._

_"Great."_

_"Excuse me, Miss Gilmore, Mr. Miller's on the phone in the car," Tristan said, walking up._

_Rory groaned and rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Tristan. You know, I can't believe you'd be friends with someone who bosses you around like that."_

_"Oh, come on, Mary, you know better than that. I secretly boss him around, but turn it around and make it seem like it's his idea. Either way, Mark's on the phone in the car, and he wants to talk to you," Tristan stressed the last five words, raising his eyebrows to show their importance. Rory sighed, and then looked back at Jess, who she was still wrapped around._

_"Are you going to be in town for a while?"_

_"Uh, yeah," Jess said, staring at Tristan._

_"Good. Give me your number, I'll call you when I can."_

_"Okay," Jess agreed, pulling a business card from the back pocket of his jeans._

_"Wow, you've gone pro," Rory grinned at the card._

_"Only the best for the best," Jess grinned back._

_"Okay. I've gotta go. Bye," Rory kissed Jess quickly on the cheek and followed Tristan back to the limo, hitting him every few feet._

_Jess watched them go, rubbing the spot on his cheek where Rory had kissed him._

_\--_

"That's not you going away with him," Lorelai pointed out.

"It's a long story," Rory said defensively, "and I'm tired of sitting here. I am putting on an oversize shirt and going for a walk. Come with?"

"Yeah, yeah, fine." Lorelai stood up and followed her daughter to her room. She leaned against the doorway as Rory pulled an oversize sweater from her bag. "How does Jess fit into this whole thing?"

Rory paused. "He's…an important part of the story."

"He's your past."

"And my future," Rory responded immediately, defensively.

"And the father," Lorelai sighed and stated simply.

Rory stopped. And then shook her head. "No, I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to."

"No. I can't tell you who the father is yet."

"Sweetie, you didn't have to tell me, I figured it out."

"No! You can't figure it out. Not yet. Not until you know why." Rory paused, wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "Can you stay here? Let me vent on my own?" she asked quietly, desperately, tears welling up. Lorelai's heart hurt for her daughter.

"Sure."

"Thank you," Rory said, pushing past her mother and out of the house.

\--

_Rory glanced at Tristan, in the room opposite hers in the suite they were staying at tonight. Asleep. She glanced at the clock. 3:14. She shrugged. Jess was probably still up, either shooting still, or prowling the streets of the city that never sleeps, or, if he hadn't changed in the last four years, sprawled across his bed, reading and smoking a cigarette. She smiled at the thought and climbed from her bed, reaching for her cell phone and Jess' business card. Halfway through dialing his number, she stopped. Lorelai. She should call Lorelai. She erased Jess' number and dialed her mother's. It rang, four times, and Lorelai had just picked up and groggily answered hello when Tristan sat straight up in bed and spouted Shakespeare. Rory immediately hung up, hoping Tristan hadn't seen her on the phone._

_"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!" Tristan yelled again, before slumping back into bed. Rory giggled. Tristan spouted Henry the fifth in his sleep? But, she'd learned her lesson, so she slipped into some actual clothes instead of her pajamas and walked downstairs, to the house phone, leaving her cell phone in her drawer._

_Not knowing that it was ringing, that Lorelai had star sixty-nined her._

_"Excuse me, can I use the lobby phone?" Rory asked, walking up to the front desk of the hotel._

_"Yes, ma'am. To get out of the hotel, you must dial 9. For long distance, you must dial 1, and then the area code, and then the number, and then nine."_

_Rory nodded and thanked the man as he lifted the phone from behind the desk and onto the counter. She pulled Jess' business card from her back pocket and dialed his number. It rang twice before Jess answered._

_"You're ruining my reading time," he stated, annoyed. Rory smiled._

_"Jess."_

_"Rory," Jess responded, his tone happier. "Ready to disappear now?"_

_"As ready as I'll ever be."_

_"Good. I'll come pick you up."_

_"Wait, you know what? Why don't we just meet somewhere?"_

_"Sure. Where?"_

_"Washington Square Park."_

_"Perfect. Half-an-hour?"_

_"Twenty minutes."_

_"Even better. See you later, Rory."_

_"See you, Jess." Rory hung up the phone, thanked the man behind the desk one last time, and walked out of the hotel._

_\--_

Rory walked out of her mother's house and started wandering aimlessly around town, but wandering the back way, out of the center of town. Her mind was racing, reeling, with thousands of thoughts, and feelings, and memories, and before she knew it, she was laying on the bridge, staring at the gray clouds overhead, wishing for more snow, so that it could bury her, and she wouldn't have to think about her screwed up life anymore.

\--

_Rory and Jess met at the Washington Square Arch in the Park less than fifteen minutes later, and Rory immediately threw her arms around him and squeezed._

_"Whoa!" he half-laughed. "I need to breathe."_

_"I know," she whispered, holding on with all her might. She squeezed once more and released him slightly, still leaving her arms around his waist, but moving back a little so she could look into his face. "I've missed you."_

_"I've missed you, too," he said, just as softly._

_"But we can't be anything but friends. Only friends," Rory repeated, more to herself than Jess. Jess nodded and agreed._

_"We should get going."_

_"Where are we going, anyway?"_

_"We're heading up to Maine for the weekend. I hear they're still getting snow."_

_"Snow!" Rory exclaimed, her eyes lighting up._

_"Exactly." Jess laughed, and they started walking. "Do you have clothes you need to get?"_

_Rory bit her lip. Did she want to get her clothes, and risk getting caught by Tristan? She decided not to risk it, and shook her head. "Can we buy some?"_

_Jess nodded, and they walked out of the park._

_\--_

Rory half got her wish. While the clouds did burst open, nice, fluffy, yet cold snow did not spill from them. Instead, cold, wet, rain fell down, drenching Rory from head to foot in minutes. She stood, slowly, but couldn't bring herself to go back to her mother's house, and instead pulled a John Cusack and sat back down on the bridge, thinking over her past, not-quite-good, love life.

Lorelai, on the other hand, was freaking out. Her daughter had disappeared ten minutes ago, and two minutes ago, it had begun to rain. No, not just rain— _pour_. After another minute of sitting at the kitchen table, five feet from one door and staring at the other door, waiting for Rory to get home, she got up, clothed herself in a raincoat, grabbed another, larger one for Rory, grabbed an umbrella, and braved the rain to search tiny Stars Hollow for her only daughter.

Unfortunately, tiny towns seem a lot larger when you're searching for your only daughter, who just happens to be five months pregnant with your only grandchild. Your  _angry_  only child.

Lorelai sighed and started searching, praying the entire time.


	8. The Second Mention of Sleep

_Rory and Jess had gone to a Wal-Mart on their way out of New York, and when Rory had realized that she didn't have any money to pay for her clothes, Jess graciously offered to pay, refusing all pleas of re-compensation Rory uttered, insisting that he had "more money than he knew what to do with" and "that's what friends do, right?"_

_Rory grudgingly half-agreed and allowed him to pay, but continued grumbling that he was going to find some way to hold it against her all the way up to Maine, while he just laughed._

_She stopped grumbling, however, as soon as they pulled up to their cabin in the middle the woods. Normally, the whole "middle of the woods" thing would have turned her off immediately, but this was a fabulous spot. The cabin was all wood—with central heating, Jess assured her multiple times—and nestled in a grove of pine trees and other evergreens. The trees, along with the cabin, were sprinkled with just the right amount of snow—enough to make it look pretty, not enough to make it freezing cold. Rory fell in love immediately, and fell in love again when she saw the cozy interior—two bedrooms, one living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen._

_"I never run away to the middle of nowhere until I'm sure it's up to date," Jess explained. "At least, with a microwave, a toaster, and indoor plumbing."_

_Rory smiled and hugged him again. "This is fabulous."_

_"Don't say that yet," Jess admonished, before leading her into the bigger bedroom and sitting her on the bed. "By the way, this is your room," he explained as he opened the large trunk at the end of the bed to reveal lots and lots of books._

_"Oh, my God! This rivals both of our collections together," Rory said, noticing the way the books were packed in so tightly that a gnat might have a hard time pushing his way to the bottom._

_"That's not all." Jess' eyes twinkled as he led her to the other bedroom, where a slightly smaller trunk stood at the end of the bed. He pulled it open to reveal almost as many books, packed just as tightly._

_"Where did you find this place?" Rory asked._

_"It's Baylor's," Jess answered, blushing slightly and averting his gaze to the floor. He'd told Rory the entire story of his newfound fame, and that included Baylor and Perry. Baylor was Jess' best friend in California, and she'd been an aspiring actress for as long as anyone could remember. After one particularly devastating audition, she'd found Jess sitting on the boardwalk, scribbling about something, and she'd implored him to write a movie for her, and after some pleading, he'd obliged. In order to get it on tape, though, they needed someone with connections, and Perry, a film student at UCLA, was just that. After filming the first half of it, Perry's teacher, who had some major connections himself, had shown it to a major studio, who'd offered Perry, Baylor, and Jess millions of dollars to finish the film in time to bring it to theaters, summer 2008. The only thing Jess hadn't fully explained was his real relationship with Baylor. Rory got the idea that they were more than friends, but she couldn't get much beyond that._

_"Oh." Rory said softly, and then she pepped up. "Food! We need food!"_

_Jess laughed. "We just ate an hour ago."_

_Rory rolled her eyes. "That was an hour ago. Now you get your diner workin' butt into the kitchen and cook up some food!"_

_Jess laughed again and mock-bowed. "Yes, madam."_

_Rory grinned. "That's the kind of service I like."_

_Jess continued laughing as he walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. Before long, Rory heard the unmistakable sound of someone cooking. Or, the sound of someone banging pots and pans around. She couldn't tell the difference. Either way, Jess was doing something, so she walked back into the larger bedroom and picked the first book out of the trunk, obviously the last read._

_Howl, by Allen Ginsberg. Rory grinned and started reading._

_\--_

Lorelai felt like she was in a movie or a television show of some kind, with some slow piano laden song playing on the soundtrack. Something like Jewel's "Hands". Of course, the longer Lorelai searched without finding Rory, there was only one phrase that really jumped out at her from the song. Over and over again.

_I will get down on my knees,_

_And I will pray._

_I will get down on my knees,_

_And I will pray._

_I will get down on my knees,_

_And I will pray._

Lorelai was praying, praying like she'd only prayed at those few key moments in her life—finding out about Rory, having Rory, moving away from her parents, money for school for Rory, money for school for Rory, Rory, Rory, Rory…Rory and baby.

A wave of adrenaline hit Lorelai, the kind of adrenaline that hits mothers who believe their children are in danger, and she walked faster, not feeling the rain, not feeling the cold, and suddenly she was there. On the bridge. She mentally smacked herself for not realizing that this was where Rory went to find refuge, and then cautiously walked to the edge of the bridge. She closed her umbrella and set it to the side, and then wrapped Rory in the spare raincoat as she sat down next to her daughter.

"Hi," Lorelai said, not really speaking at or to Rory, just gazing over the water.

"Hi," Rory answered, gazing at her hands playing in her lap.

"You cold?"

"Kinda."

"We should go home. Get warm."

Rory nodded, and when she didn't say anything, Lorelai looked over. Rory nodded again.

"Okay. We'll go. You'll maybe explain your freak-out. Mark. Jess. Tristan. The father. Etcetera, etcetera."

"Okay, Yul Brynner in The King And I."

"Good to know you haven't  _completely_  lost your sense of humor," Lorelai smiled, and then stood up. Rory glanced helplessly up to her mother, who understood immediately and held out her hands. "Oof!" she exclaimed as Rory stood up. "Heavy already?"

"I'm not that bad. The sweater's weighing me down," Rory explained defensively, gesturing to the large wet clump of wool that clung to her like a shirt.

"I understand, I'm just teasin' you," Lorelai said, throwing one arm around her daughter's shoulder and using the other to hold the umbrella over the two of them.

"Not much use now, is it?" Rory asked, gesturing to the umbrella. Lorelai shrugged and closed it.

"Guess not."

\--

_"Weird," Jess muttered an hour later. They'd just finished eating breakfast, and Rory had told Jess her entire story, starting at six o'clock the morning before. Rory could hardly believe that it was only a little over twenty-four hours ago that Mark had woken her up and hurried her out the door…and then it struck her that she'd only slept a total of twenty minutes in the last twenty-four hours, and she yawned._

_"You know what I think," Jess said suddenly, not noticing Rory yawning, "I think that you should convince him that you're cheating on him. Like, really cheating on him. And as soon as he finds that out, he's not gonna want to cart you around the country anymore."_

_"That's actually a good idea. But, if I told him, he wouldn't believe me, and I can't tell him anyway, cause that'd sound…like I was trying to get him to break up with me."_

_"Hmmm." Jess stared into his post-breakfast coffee, as if waiting for an answer. When he finally got one, he looked up at Rory, opened his mouth, and blushed._

_"What? What is it?"_

_"Well, I got an idea, but I gotta know something that's kind of, well, very personal."_

_"What? Whatever it is, Jess, you probably already know. And if you don't, I see no reason you can't."_

_"Okay," Jess said hesitantly. "Uh, have you and Mark…had…sex?" he whispered the last word, and blushed furiously. Rory ducked her head, her cheeks flaming also. Finally she looked up, directly into his eyes._

_"No."_

_"Uh, good." Jess cleared his throat about three times. "Uh, so my idea is this. Since you haven't had sex, the only real way he'd know you're cheating on him is to…get pregnant. By someone who is not him."_

_Rory nodded slowly, and then stopped. "I can't just fake a test. I can't just bribe a doctor to say I'm pregnant. He's gonna need proof."_

_"Uh, okay. Uh…fake the test, bribe the doctor to fake the test, and then run. Run like hell. Chop your hair off, use a fake name, and move every month or so, never allowing him to find you. Don't use banks. Rent, don't own. Don't have a telephone or an electric bill—nothing that they can use to trace you."_

_"You speak like you know this."_

_Jess shrugged. "Just knowledgeable, I guess."_

_"About very interesting subjects." Rory raised her eyebrows._

_"It's gonna be of help to you, isn't it?" Jess asked. Rory nodded. "So I wouldn't worry about it."_

_"Okay. I just hope I can handle it."_

_"You can handle anything, I'm sure of it." Jess smiled._

_Rory groaned. "Cheesy—not good. Ugh, I think I'm gonna barf, with all these cheese."_

_Jess tore a little piece off of his bread and threw it at Rory, who ducked and laughed._

_\--_

Mother and daughter walked back into the house, soaked but a little happier, five minutes later. Rory immediately started coffee—decaf—and Lorelai got towels for the both of them. They eventually changed into dry clothes and toweled off, and then sat back down at the kitchen table, coffee in hand, to hopefully get a little more of the story. Rory explained all the way through Jess' suggestion, when Lorelai popped in with comments.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I think I see where this is going. So Jess suggested you cheat on Mark—what, with him? Did he then suggest that you and he have sex right there, multiple times so as to insure pregnation? Did I just make up a word?"

"No, no, and yes," Rory nodded.

"Wait. What?"

"Jess didn't suggest I have sex with him multiple times, and yes, pregnation is a brand-new word made up by you."

"Webster wishes he was me," Lorelai grinned. "But, back to the story."

"Back to the story," Rory nodded.

\--

_"Well, I've got to get some sleep," Rory announced. "I've slept a total of twenty minutes over the last day."_

_Jess nodded. "I understand. See you later."_

_"Wake me up by nine tomorrow morning."_

_Jess nodded again. Rory walked out of the kitchen and back to the larger bedroom. She closed the door, slipped out of her shoes and jeans, and crawled into bed._

_"Rory. Rory. Wake up, Rory," Jess was saying into her face seconds later._

_"What?" she asked groggily, rubbing her eyes. "What time is it?"_

_"Ten thirty. Look, I'm sorry to wake you up, but someone's on the phone for you."_

_"What?" Rory sat up completely and noticed it was dark outside the window. Oh, so it was ten thirty at night. Rory had been asleep for almost fourteen hours, but she was still a little tired. "The phone? I thought this place didn't have a phone."_

_"They're on my cell-phone. Are you giving out my number?"_

_"What? No. Lemme have the phone."_

_Jess wordlessly handed her the phone._

_"Hello?" she asked._

_"Tsk, tsk." Tristan clicked his tongue at her. Rory hated the fact that she knew that it was Tristan's tongue clicking. "I tell you you aren't allowed to call anyone—especially not your mother—and you see this as an invitation to both call your mother and sneak out of the hotel room?"_

_"Tristan, how the hell did you get this number?"_

_"Oh, I didn't get this number. Mark did."_

_"Wipe that smug-ass look off your face and shut up."_

_"Well, then, how will we communicate? We're on the phone, Mary, you should know better than that."_

_Rory sighed. "What do you want?"_

_"Mark's worried about you."_

_"Well, then, Mark should call."_

_"Mark can't call."_

_"Why the hell not?"_

_"He's busy."_

_"Doing what?"_

_"What he's doing."_

_"Stop it."_

_"Never."_

_"I hate you."_

_"Right back at ya."_

_"Tristan."_

_"Mary."_

_"It's 'Rory'."_

_"I know."_

_"Then say it."_

_"Never."_

_"Stop it!"_

_"Never."_

_Rory sighed and handed Jess the phone. "You handle it. I'm going back to bed." And she fell back into bed and immediately was fast asleep. When she woke up eleven hours later, only one thought was in her head—how did Tristan know that Rory had called Lorelai?_

_She got out of bed and dressed and walked into the kitchen, where Jess was leaning against the counter and drinking a beer, a stack of pancakes behind him._

_"A little early to be drinking," Rory observed as she grabbed a plate and piled pancakes on it._

_"A little late for you to be high-and-mighty," Jess shot back, taking another sip._

_"What?" Rory paused, wondering if she'd heard right._

_"Nothing." Jess half-groaned. "Eat, and then we're heading back to the city."_

_"What? Why? Less than a day of scandal isn't gonna do you any good."_

_"Look, Rory, I don't care if you're Mark's spy, but you need to tell me these things and don't lie to me, and especially don't let me hear it from some smug bastard on my cell phone."_

_"What?" Rory was completely confused now._

_"Don't give me that innocent shit. Be ready to leave in twenty minutes." Jess pushed himself from the counter and walked out of the room, leaving a stunned Rory behind him._


	9. The Second, Third, Fourth Roadblocks

_Rory practically threw her plate on the counter and stalked after Jess._

_"What the hell are you talking about? I told you everything last night—everything." Rory raised her eyebrows meaningfully. "And now I wake up and you immediately jump on me and don't explain? What's going on?"_

_"Look, you can't act all high and mighty after the way you used me last night."_

_"I never used you!"_

_"Bullshit!"_

_Rory glared. Jess glared._

_A stand-off._

_"You tell me what the hell Tristan told you yesterday."_

_"Just your secret."_

_"I don't have any secrets!"_

_"Oh, really? Well, this 'Tristan' guy seems to think that you're spying on me for Mark. Apparently, Mark works in Hollywood, for a rival studio, and his studio's heard about my movie, and now you're here to steal it."_

_"Dammit, Jess, I don't even know the stupid plot of your movie! I have asked no questions about your movie, and I don't know what the hell is going on with Mark. He's freaking me out with this secrecy crap, and Tristan showed up, and I hated him six years ago, and I hate him now, and he's being even more annoying than he's ever been before, and somehow they know that I called Mom, and everyone's mad at me, and I can't call my mother, and now you're yelling at me…" Rory trailed off as the tears started coming. Jess hesitantly wrapped his arms around her. "And now I have to run away and pretend to be pregnant to get away from everything and I can't do it, I can't do any of it, I'm not strong enough, and—"_

_"Shhhh, shhhh," Jess tried to comfort Rory. She buried her head in his shoulder and he patted her back as she basically drenched his right sleeve. "You can do it."_

_"Not by myself," Rory protested._

_"No, not by yourself," Jess agreed, gently pushing Rory away from him so he could see her face. "With me." Jess used his thumb to wipe the trails of tears off her face. "Okay?"_

_She nodded, slightly._

_"Okay," he whispered, and she leaned her head back onto his shoulder._

_\--_

"Aw. That's sweet."

"I agree," Rory smiled.

"And you're telling me he's not the father?"

"He's not the father," Rory insisted.

"Okay. He's not the father. Who is?"

"It's in the story."

Lorelai sighed. "I have to know the entire story just to know who the father is?"

"Uh…yeah."

"You just like being the center of attention, don't you?" Lorelai grinned.

"Maybe," Rory grinned back.

"Okay. I can relate. Continue."

"Thank you."

\--

_"Let's go. We've still got to get back."_

_"We have to?" Rory asked. Jess nodded._

_"Yup. Keep up appearances for just a little longer, and then we can…run. 'Kay?"_

_Rory nodded, and allowed herself to be led to the car and practically placed into the passenger seat. Then Jess disappeared for a second and reappeared with both of their bags. He threw them in the trunk, and they were off._

_An hour into the six and a half hour trip, Jess was firm in his decision that he was going to help Rory get rid of Mark for good. Rory had calmed down a little, and agreed that Jess was probably her best bet. But she still wanted to call her mom, if only to check in, give her a better happy birthday, and apologize for the last eight months, last September, since Rory had met Mark._

_"Can I borrow your cell-phone again?" Rory asked as Jess paused in his heated disapproval of both Mark and Tristan._

_"We're still out of range," Jess said even as he nodded._

_"Thank you," she said, pulling the phone from the glove compartment and dialing her mother's number._

_"We're sorry. The person you are trying to reach is out of range. Please hang up and try again later," the most annoying male voice in the world grated in her ear. Wait, it wasn't Tristan. The second most annoying male voice in the world._

_She sighed. "You're right again. I hate that."_

_Jess laughed. "Don't worry, we'll be in range before long. Just…wait."_

_"Easy for you to say," Rory grumbled, crossing her arms and leaving the phone on her lap._

_When they drove through Boston, Rory tried again. Same results. Desperately, she started calling the second they crossed the Connecticut State Line, and continued every two minutes until they passed through Hartford, and she thought something might be up._

_"I think Mark's tapped your phone," she said to Jess._

_"Bastard." Jess pulled the car to a stop on the side of the road and grabbed the phone from Rory. He dialed Lorelai's number—unavailable. He asked Rory's grandparents' number, and tried that—unavailable. He tried her number at the dorm in New Haven—unavailable. Finally, as a last resort, he called Baylor, who was over two hours away at this point._

_"Hey, stud," she answered, knowing from the caller ID that it was his phone._

_"Baylor, hi. Uh, I'm probably gonna be home soon. Don't ask why—it's a long story. Try to keep Perry off my back for a while, cause I'm gonna be a little busy."_

_"Okay," she agreed without any questions. Jess grinned._

_"Great. That's why I love ya, babe. Talk to ya later." He hung up the phone to find Rory staring at him. "What?" he asked, almost defensively, as he started the car and eased back onto the highway._

_"Nothing," Rory answered, looking away from him. "Oh, do you think we could stop by my grandparents' house?"_

_"Sure. Which way?"_

_Rory pointed out the route, and within ten minutes, they were pulling up to a gate outside a formidable home._

_"Whoa. People live here?" Jess asked. "It's almost like the New York Public Library."_

_"Yeah. You know, my grandparents have never closed this gate." Rory climbed from the car and walked up to the gate. There was a brand-new, state of the art lock on it, and on one of the columns, was an intercom box. She walked over to it and pressed the "ENTER" button. Static came back to her, and then a crackly voice._

_"Mary, what'd I tell you about contacting your family? I thought you'd know better by now."_

_Rory jumped back from the gate and ran back to the car. She jumped in and said to a very confused Jess, "Drive. We're going to Stars Hollow."_

_"Wha—"_

_"Just drive," she interrupted him. He obliged, and half an hour later they were pulling up to Luke's._

_"Closed," Jess stated simply._

_"No duh, Einstein."_

_Jess walked backwards, into the street, and looked up at the windows of the apartment. "No lights. Nothing moving. Hey, uh, he and Lorelai haven't—"_

_"Gotten together? No. At least, I don't think so."_

_"God, this guy was a horrible influence on you."_

_"Thanks. I know that now."_

_"That's good."_

_"This whole town seems all weird."_

_"It's always been weird."_

_"No, I mean—there's no one here. Doose's is closed at two in the afternoon. All of the houses are deserted. There's no one on the streets. Miss Patty's is empty. There's something wrong."_

_"We need to get back to New York. Like, as soon as possible."_

_"Okay." Rory headed back to the car; Jess cast one more look around the town square and the inside of the diner, and then followed Rory._

_\--_

"Oh, you did come to visit me!"

"Yeah, I tried."

"When was this? What was I doing?"

"It was right after your birthday."

"Oh. Oh! That's when that group of guys announced they were throwing a humongo party in the Inn for the whole town."

"All 9, 973 of them?"

"All 9, 975." Lorelai corrected.

"Five?" Rory asked.

"Kelsey Schwartzmann had twins."

"Kelsey had twins?"

"Yeah, I know, everyone else was shocked too. Especially when she announced Kirk was the dad."

"What?!"

"He wasn't really, but he'd paid her fifty bucks to say that to improve his street cred."

"His words or yours?"

"His."

"Ah."

"But, continue, story, baby's father, let's go."

\--

_Jess dropped Rory off in front of her hotel exactly two hours after they'd left Stars Hollow. She grabbed her bag and ran up the stairs, entering the same room she'd exited just a day before. She tried not to make any noise as she crept into her room and lifted the phone to her ear, intending to dial her mother._

_"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Mary," Tristan warned, walking up from behind her._

_"God, Tristan, you scared me."_

_"Sorry."_

_"Good. Now go the hell away."_

_"That hurts, Mary."_

_"Tristan."_

_He just smirked, walked over to Rory and leaned in close. She recoiled, and he whispered, "Mark's waiting for you in Room eleven-eleven. He expects to see you there in ten minutes, no excuses." Tristan turned and walked away. Rory waited until she'd heard the door slam, and then she ran to the drawer where she'd left her cell-phone. She searched through all of her clothes, not finding it, and threw all of her clothes on the floor._

_Written on the bottom of the drawer, in black permanent marker, were the words, "No phone calls to Mommy allowed."_

_Rory slammed the drawer shut and walked back over to the hotel phone. Even if she couldn't talk to her mother, she had an appointment to make. Here in New York._

_And then she'd keep up appearances for a week, before dropping her bomb and making a run for it._


	10. The Third Mention of the Baby in the Story

_Rory stood outside the double doors of Room 1111, trying to get herself in character. She was Mark's girlfriend—she suspected nothing, and she certainly wasn't planning on betraying him in—Rory checked her watch—an hour and a half._

_"I love my boyfriend, I love my boyfriend," she repeated over and over, smoothing the skirt of the sundress she'd changed into minutes before. "I'm not gonna betray him. Oh, no, of course not."_

_Rory pasted a huge fake smile to her face, lifted her hand, and knocked. There was some shuffling, and then the door was pulled open._

_"Tristan." Rory stated simply, her fake smile dropping from her face. "What the hell are you doing here? Where's Mark?" She pushed her way past Tristan and looked around the dark hotel room as best she could._

_"Not here," Tristan shrugged. Rory turned to him, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes on fire._

_"Oh, he was here. I didn't lie to you. But he got called away. He said for me to drop you off at his apartment in London as soon as possible."_

_Rory breathed in sharply. This would put a definite crimp in her plans. "Can we stay here for the night?"_

_Tristan raised his eyebrows._

_"I…I want to watch tonight's episode of The Surreal Life. I hear Beverly Mitchell blows up at Danny Pintauro." Rory prayed to God that either she had grown out of doing the blink-y thing when she lied, or Tristan didn't notice._

_Tristan sighed. "Fine. But you stay in the hotel. I've got a date." He grinned. She groaned. He herded her back to her room, quickly, and then left. She grinned._

_"Bad idea, Romeo," she muttered as she turned the TV on and made her way out of the hotel, making sure to wait to get on the elevator after Tristan had gone downstairs. She watched him leave the hotel and then followed, walking the opposite way down the busy New York street._

_\--_

"Tristan's an idiot."

"I agree. In more ways than one. But do you want to hear the story or not?"

"Sorry, sorry, please continue."

"Thank you."

"Continue!"

"I was being polite!"

"Stop being polite and continue! I'm gettin' antsy!"

\--

_"Ms. Hayden?" The doctor's assistant called through her glass window. No one answered. "Ms. Hayden?" she called a little more pointedly, aiming the words toward the only woman in the entire waiting room._

_"Oh. That's me." Rory popped up from her seat, throwing the People magazine onto the end table and walking to the glass window._

_"The doctor will see you now."_

_"Thank you," Rory nodded, and walked through the door the woman gestured to._

_"Down the hall and to the left. Room 2."_

_Rory nodded again, and followed the woman's instructions, fiddling with the hem of her skirt nervously. She walked through the open door and settled into the plastic chair in the corner of the room, eyeing the doctor's table nervously. Before long, a very pleasant looking blonde woman walked in and closed the door behind her._

_"Hello. I'm Doctor Joelle."_

_"I'm Rory Hayden." Rory gave her father's last name—she didn't want Mark to follow her—and shook the woman's outstretched hand._

_"Well, Rory, I'm a little puzzled by your impatient attitude. Not a lot of women are as antsy as you seem to be about getting artificially inseminated."_

_\--_

"Ha! She used my word!" Lorelai exclaimed. "She said antsy! Wait. What? Artificially inseminated?"

Rory nodded.

"So Jess really isn't the father."

"And Mark's not the father, and Tristan's not the father, and the weird men I've met over the past five months are not the father. At least, I don't think so. I like to think that the father is a star on  _All My Children_."

"Ah. Okay. Well, should you continue the story?"

"Do you want to hear about me getting artificially inseminated?"

Lorelai pulled a face. "Maybe, if you could just gloss over it, that'd be great."

"Okay. Well, first of all, before I went to the doctor's office, I took fifteen thousand dollars out of Mark's bank account."

"How did you manage that?"

Rory grinned. "He gave me a joint account right before he started dragging me all over the world. Told me it was spending money. Had thirty thousand dollars in it."

"Dear Lord!"

"Exactly. So I took half of it out of there, and used that to influence the doctors to artificially inseminate me that night. Told nosy Dr. Joelle that I was coming up on my thirtieth birthday and felt the need to have a child before that point in time. She asked if I was married. I told her no; I was gonna do it all on my own. She nodded, told me she didn't think she could do it, but all the more power to me if I could, and knocked me up. She told me to come back in a week to make sure it'd taken, and I said I would."

"A lie."

"A big one. Then I went back to the hotel and was watching The Surreal Life by the time Tristan returned at midnight."

"And then?"

"The next morning, we flew to London."

\--

_"This is it," Tristan announced as he pushed the door to Mark's London apartment open. The lights were off, and it was dark._

_"Mark?" Rory asked, pushing past Tristan and walking through the apartment. After a thorough search, she returned to the front foyer and assumed her defensive stance in front of Tristan. Arms crossed, eyes aflame, right foot tapping impatiently on the floor. "Where is he?"_

_Tristan shrugged. "He didn't say he was going to be here. He just said for you to be here," Tristan pointed at Rory and grinned. "Ta." He started to close the door._

_"Tristan!" Rory yelled, shoving her bag into the door and—accidentally on purpose—hitting Tristan in the process. "Where is he?"_

_Tristan sighed. "I don't know," he answered, really unconvincingly._

_"Tristan…" Rory used her warning tone._

_Tristan didn't answer, just averted his gaze to the rain hitting the windows in Mark's apartment._

_"Tristan!" she yelled again._

_"Goddammit! Fine! I'll take you to him!"_

_"Thank you," Rory said sweetly._

_"But we have to go back to New York."_

_Rory's smile faded and she hit Tristan with her bag again. He held up his hands in defense._

_"He's there, I swear! He's got some big meeting. He's supposed to go straight to Virginia when he's through."_

_"Well, then, let's go to Virginia." Rory led the way to the elevator; Tristan slowly followed her._

_"Mark's gonna kill me," he murmured under his breath, pressing the button for the lobby. "Kill me dead."_

_When they touched down in Virginia many, many hours later, Rory was ready to kill Tristan herself. She practically ran from the plane to the waiting limo—she knew the routine by now—and locked Tristan out of the car._

_"The closest Rite-Aid," she told the driver, who nodded and slowly started pulling from his spot. "Hurry!" she commanded as Tristan started banging on her window and yelling curses. The driver obliged, and they were at the nearest Rite-Aid in less than two minutes._

_Rory told the driver to wait, and she ran in, bought five home pregnancy tests—all different brands—and ran back out. She took her time stuffing the tests into both of her bags, and then she told the driver to take her back to the airport. Sure enough, Tristan was sitting on a curb, his head in his hands. She leaned out of the door slightly and pulled him in._

_He was still surprised ten minutes later, when the driver dropped them in front of a very tall office building._

_Only when Tristan saw the office building—their destination—did he snap back._

_"What the hell did you do that for, Mary?" he asked._

_"I had somewhere I needed to go."_

_"You don't need to go anywhere that I don't say."_

_"I don't take orders from you or anybody." Rory said defiantly, walking into the office building and directly into the elevator._

_Tristan unknowingly followed her and pressed the button for Mark's floor, still arguing._

_"You have to take orders from Mark."_

_"I don't have to take orders from anybody."_

_"Mark's your boyfriend."_

_"So? This is 2007, Tristan. In case you haven't noticed, women are slowly but surely taking over the world. We don't have to take orders from men anymore."_

_Tristan pouted in the corner of the elevator. The doors opened on floor 27, and Rory continued lecturing him, slowly backing out of the elevator._

_"I'm an independent woman, Tristan DuGrey. I have to take orders from no one. I do what I please." She was completely out of the elevator now, and the doors were closing. "Goodbye." She waved as the doors closed. Tristan freaked out and raced to motion in front of the electronic eye, but it was too late. Rory watched in delight as the elevator started its way back to the lobby, but decided she needed to find Mark before it was too late._

_"Excuse me, is Mr. Miller here?" Rory asked of one of the many secretaries at the front desk._

_The secretary wordlessly pointed behind her, down a corridor, and Rory nodded and walked away. At the very end of the corridor was a closed door with a small nameplate proclaiming, "Mr. Mark Miller" fixed on it. Rory steeled her reserve and pushed the door open._

_The office was empty. The desk was piled high with paperwork, and the large desk chair was turned around to face the large window. Rory stepped forward._

_"Mark?" she asked._

_"No," an oddly familiar voice said. "But close." The chair swung around and there, instead of Mark, sat Jake Miller._

_"Jake," Rory said simply._

_"Is that any way to greet your boyfriend's brother?" Jake asked, standing to walk to Rory and give her a hug._

_"No," she answered, side-stepping his hug. "But since Mark's not my boyfriend anymore, I'd say that's a good way to treat you." Rory turned and stalked back down the hallway, to the elevator._

_When the doors opened seconds later, Tristan reached out, grabbed Rory's wrist, and steered her into the small box. "Don't leave me again."_

_"Don't make me do things I don't want to do again."_

_"Too bad. We're going to France again."_

_"I wanna go back to New York."_

_"France."_

_"New York."_

_"France."_

_"New YORK!" Rory yelled._

_Tristan sighed. "New York."_

_"And get your hands off of me," she commanded, pulling her wrist from his hand._

_"You're really annoying, you know that?" Tristan asked._

_"Back at ya, asshole."_

_"That's not nice."_

_"You're not nice."_

_"You know what?" Tristan sighed again. "I bet we wouldn't have half as much stress if we just shut up for thirty minutes."_

_"Deal." Rory said._


	11. The Fifth Test

"And how long did Tristan keep the silence?"

"Till the elevator doors opened."

"Longer than I thought."

"Me, too."

"But continue."

\--

_In New York, Tristan dropped Rory off at the same room in the same hotel as before, and then ran off somewhere, but posted a guard outside the double doors of the suite. Rory, in a panic and not knowing what to do, called Jess._

_"Hello?" Baylor answered the phone._

_"Uh. Hi. Uh, is Jess there?" Rory asked, unsure of what she might have unknowingly interrupted._

_"Sure. Just a sec." Baylor didn't seem too put-off by the thought of some strange woman calling Jess, so maybe it was nothing._

_"Hello?" Jess answered the phone._

_"Did I interrupt something?" Rory asked immediately._

_"What? No. Baylor's going over the script for tomorrow. Are you okay?"_

_"No. Jess. I…I'll talk to you later." Rory hung up the phone, and then kept her hand over the receiver._

_"Chicken. You're a big fat chicken," she told herself, before steeling her nerves and picking up the phone again. This time, Jess answered._

_"Rory?"_

_"Look, can you come over here? I…. Tristan has me under house arrest. I need to talk to you. Come over here. The same hotel. Room 1507. Now, please." Rory spoke in halted phrases, her mind hardly connecting anything._

_"Sure. Anything," Jess said._

_"Thank you." Rory hung up the phone and started pacing. Sure, she'd talked with Jess about pretending to be pregnant; faking a test…but they'd never said anything about actually getting pregnant. It had been Rory's idea to actually get pregnant—all the proof Mark would ever need—but now that she might actually be pregnant, she was a little worried about what Jess' reaction would be. Too worried, she realized. It was just Jess. What did she care?_

_But, oh…she cared._

_"Hey, how ya doing. I'm just gonna go in this room right here—" Jess' voice said out in the hall. Rory perked up._

_There was a murmuring. The guard, Rory figured._

_"No, I'm a friend of…Tristan's. I'm here to check on Mark's girl. Yeah. Make sure she's here."_

_There was another murmuring._

_"Well, she coulda gone out the window. Ever think of that? Yeah. So Tristan wants me to go in the room, check on her."_

_More murmuring, and the door was unlocked._

_"Thanks," Jess said as he walked into the suite. The guard nodded and closed the door, and Jess whistled as he looked around. "Big room."_

_"Jess."_

_Immediately Jess snapped back, concerned once more._

_"Rory. What's wrong?" he asked, rushing over._

_"This…is really hard to say. Yeah. It's…hard."_

_"And 'this' is?" Jess asked gently._

_"I…think I might be pregnant."_

_"Huh." Jess collapsed onto the bed behind him. He looked up at Rory, opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again. "Huh, " he repeated._

_"Yeah. You see, after you dropped me off, I made an appointment with a doctor. And got…artificially inseminated."_

_"Huh." Jess said again, looking all over the room, until finally looking back up at Rory. "So…are you pregnant?"_

_"I dunno. They said you have to wait a week, but I don't want to wait a week. I bought five pregnancy tests in Virginia." Rory walked over to her bags near the dresser and started searching through them._

_"When were you in Virginia?"_

_"About twenty minutes ago. Here they are," she emerged triumphant, holding all five tests in her hands. "I'm gonna go take 'em."_

_"All of them?" Jess asked._

_"Well, yeah. You see, they're all different brands. And they all say…to take a week after your last would-be period," Rory said, reading a package._

_"And it hasn't been that long yet, right?"_

_"Right. But I'm hoping that at least one of 'em's positive. There's no such thing as a false positive anymore."_

_"Ah. You…go do that, then."_

_"I will." Rory smiled and walked into the bathroom. She felt much more together now. Jess, on the other hand, felt much more apart._

_"Two minutes," Rory announced a few minutes later, pressing buttons on her watch._

_"You took 'em all?" Jess asked._

_"Uh-huh," Rory nodded, walking over to the bed where Jess was still sitting. "All five." She sat on the bed next to Jess. Very close to Jess. They both stared at the open bathroom door. Rory heaved a long, concerned sigh, and Jess unknowingly lifted a hand to her back and started rubbing. She leaned into his shoulder, and he continued rubbing the small of her back. Her watch started beeping. Both paused and stiffened._

_"This is it," Rory murmured._

_"Yep."_

_"I should go check them."_

_"Yep."_

_"Come with me," Rory demanded, grabbing Jess' hand from behind her._

_"Okay," he agreed, seeing the look in her eyes. She nodded, and they got up off of the bed simultaneously. They slowly walked over to the bathroom, and stood in the doorway staring at the five sticks of plastic sitting on the sink._

_"You take those two, I'll take these two, and we'll meet up for the middle one." Rory said, pointing to the two on the left for Jess. He nodded, and they walked to their separate edges of the sink and picked up the tests._

_"Positive, and positive," Rory announced, her voice a mixture of elation and nervousness._

_"Same here," Jess nodded. Rory closed her eyes as tightly as she could, picked up the fifth and final test, and opened her eyes._

_"Negative."_

_"A false negative, apparently."_

_"Yeah. So."_

_"So."_

_"You're pregnant."_

_"I'm pregnant," Rory half-laughed. "I…don't know what I'm feeling."_

_"It's okay to be scared."_

_Rory nodded._

_"And…thrilled," Jess said after searching her face._

_She laughed. "I think I'm both."_

_"I can see that."_

_"Yeah. So. You wanna run with me?"_

_"What?"_

_"Run. I need to run. Get away from Mark and Tristan. You wanna run?"_

_"Don't you have to tell Mark you're pregnant?"_

_"I'm gonna leave the tests here."_

_"All of 'em?"_

_Rory shook her head. "I'm gonna take the negative one with me, and throw it away. I'll leave the other four on the sink."_

_"Uh, okay. So, running."_

_"Yeah. I've got an idea. You take both of my bags downstairs—give them to the front desk, to hold—and then come back up and talk to the guard. Distract him, and I'll run downstairs and meet you outside, around the right corner of the hotel."_

_"Okay." Jess nodded. "I can do that. Uh, I'm gonna do that."_

_Rory zipped up her bags and handed them to Jess, who shouldered both of them and started out the door. She spent the time he was downstairs arranging the pregnancy tests on the sink and in the trash can, and then slipped the negative one back in its box and into her pocket. Before long, Rory could hear Jess' voice in the hall, talking to the guard about "THIS ROOM OVER HERE."_

_Rory smiled and edged out of the room and down the stairs. She got her bags from the front desk and was outside and around the corner before the elevator for Jess arrived upstairs._

_He caught up with her five minutes later. "You're fast."_

_"Thank you," she smiled._

_"So…what now?"_

_Rory shrugged. "Back to your place for the night?"_

_"Sure."_

_Rory stopped Jess seconds later. "What's your relationship with Baylor?"_

_"What?"_

_"Baylor. What's your relationship with her?"_

_"She's my best friend. Star of my movie. Major manipulator."_

_"And?" Rory asked, knowing there was more._

_"And…" Jess sighed. "We used to date. Right after we met. For a month. But there wasn't any chemistry, so we broke up and we've been best friends ever since."_

_"And?" Rory prompted again._

_"And…nothing. Seriously, that's it. I'm not in love with her. I've never been in love with her. I've always…adored someone else," Jess swept a stray hair off of Rory's forehead._

_She blushed. "Oh."_

_"Let's go," Jess said, pulling her hand and steering her to the subway._

_\--_

"So you stayed at Jess' apartment. And nothing happened."

"Nope. He slept on the couch."

"Good. Was Baylor there when you got there?"

"No."

"Cause that probably would've been awkward. And the tests were almost all positive?"

"Yep. I was definitely pregnant."

"And you definitely still are."

"Yep." Rory laid her hands on her stomach.

"Any movement?"

"A little. Not much. No outside movement."

"Well, you tell me when there is, cause I wanna feel my grandchild. God. I'm old."

"You're not that old."

"That's right. You're young. What are you doing having a baby?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "Back to the story."

\--

_The next morning, Rory and Jess hopped in his car and headed back up to Maine. They were there for twenty minutes when Mark caught up to them._

_"Hello?" Jess answered his cell phone._

_"Jess. There's some weird guy calling your apartment asking for you. Over and over and over," Baylor informed him._

_"Did you tell him where we are?"_

_"No. You want me to?"_

_"No. Hold 'em off. Tell 'em you don't know where I am, and I have no idea where Rory is."_

_"Already been doing that."_

_"Tell 'em I'm in Stars Hollow, visiting my uncle, and you have no idea where Rory is."_

_"Can do." Baylor hung up._

_"Tristan?" Rory asked._

_"Already," Jess nodded. "I think you're gonna have to head off on your own."_

_Rory nodded and twirled a strand of hair around her finger thoughtfully._

_"When'd you start doing that?" Jess asked, plucking the strand from her finger and settling it back into place._

_"Huh? Oh. I dunno. I just picked it up somewhere, I guess."_

_"Don't do that, it makes you look stupid," Jess commanded. "We need to cut your hair," he said thoughtfully._

_"Right," Rory nodded._

_"Too bad we can't dye it. That would've been good."_

_"Why can't we dye it?"_

_"The fumes. Harmful for the baby."_

_"Right." Rory bounced up and down nervously. Jess angled an arm around her body and pulled her towards him._

_"Calm down. We're gonna pull this off."_

_Rory nodded._

_"Let's go get that hair cut."_

_"Not too short, though," Rory commanded, placing one protective hand around the very end of her hair._

_"Not too short," Jess agreed, leading her to the bathroom._


	12. The Four Aliases

"So Jess cut your hair," Lorelai stated, reaching out to touch her daughter's completely uneven hair. "He did a crappy job."

"I know," Rory unconsciously ran her fingers through her hair.

"I'm cutting it. Evenly." Lorelai stated, heading to get the scissors from the junk drawer.

"Right now?" Rory asked.

"In a second. Go duck your hair under the faucet and get it wet again, and I'll cut while you talk."

Rory sighed and obliged.

\--

_After four days in Maine, Rory withdrew the remaining fifteen thousand dollars from her joint account with Mark. Jess had Baylor pick him up, and gave Rory his car, an old red convertible. She thanked him, promised to keep in touch, and headed west._

_Rory used the name Victoria Hayden—her mother's middle name and her father's last name—in a small town in northern Ohio, and got a job as a front desk clerk at a hotel._

_When a certain Mr. Jake Miller, brother of a certain Mr. Mark Miller, decided to check into the hotel, Rory hightailed it out of the town, driving farther west._

_Victoria Hayden became Emily Straub—her maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather's names—in Chicago, where she got a job as a waitress._

_When Rory spotted a very familiar brunette and a very familiar blonde in very familiar suits across the restaurant, she moved to the Gulf Coast._

_Emily Straub was Leigh Phillips—her middle name, and Sam Phillips' last name. She started listening to Sam Phillips during the drive to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and was a bona fide fan when she became a hostess at a casino restaurant in Gulfport._

_Leigh Phillips stayed in Mississippi from early June to mid-August, and was very happy to spend her free time on the beach. However, the humidity, combined with the fact that at four months, she was starting to show her pregnancy, forced her from Mississippi to colder regions._

_Leigh Phillips changed into Kim Gellar—the last names of her best friends…who she hadn't seen for almost a year, she realized—as she moved into a Seattle apartment._

_Still communicating regularly with Jess, Rory was amazed when he broke the news to her that Mark Miller had disappeared._

_"Hello?" Jess asked wearily, answering his cell phone at what was almost nine at night._

_"Ooh, Jess, you sound tired," Rory said, concerned._

_"Yeah. I really am. We're hurrying to get the last fifteen pages shot by Labor Day."_

_"That's soon." Only two weeks, Rory realized, checking the calendar in her kitchen._

_"Yeah. And Baylor's feeling the strain of being a star. She's been getting less and less sleep. Me, too, come to think of it."_

_"That sucks. Anything I can do?"_

_"No. Just be your regular happy self. Keep calling."_

_"Can do."_

_"So. Who are you now? Where are you?"_

_"My name is Kim Gellar, and I live in Seattle."_

_"Seattle, huh? Nice to meet you, Kim."_

_"You, too." Rory smiled and sank into the couch left behind by the previous owner._

_"So, what're you doing these days?"_

_"I'm an assistant to one of the largest reporters in Seattle."_

_"Wow. Congratulations."_

_"Thank you. I still can't believe that I basically dropped out of college."_

_"It's okay. It wasn't your fault, anyway."_

_"No, it was my fault. I'm the one who met Mark and started going out with him. I let him control my life after I…." Rory trailed off. She didn't feel comfortable telling Jess that she'd been in love with Mark._

_"Right," Jess broke into her thoughts, sounding a little uncomfortable himself. "Uh, about that. I've had some news."_

_"Oh?" Rory asked, perking up a little. She was hoping it was something along the lines of, "he's completely and totally gone, come on home."_

_"Tristan stopped calling me. So, I called him. Just to see what was up."_

_"Uh-huh?" Rory prompted as Jess faltered._

_"Yeah. His cell-phone's out of service, his home phone's been disconnected, and his secretary didn't seem to know who I was."_

_"Makes sense."_

_"Right. So I had Baylor call back, saying she was you. She was put through immediately, and Tristan knew it wasn't you, so he came over to the movie set."_

_"Uh…huh," Rory said very slowly._

_"And he was…pretty bad. He and Mark were undercover—"_

_"Wait. Undercover?" Rory interrupted Jess._

_"Yeah. They worked for the CIA."_

_"'Worked'?"_

_"Yeah. Mark's…kinda gone. He disappeared. They have no idea where he is. And Tristan's…decommissioned. He was really bad, Ror. Like, horribly beat up, and he was nursing a bullet wounds on his left arm and legs."_

_"Oh, my God."_

_"Yeah. So…the threat's gone."_

_"Not Tristan."_

_"You don't have to worry about him anymore."_

_"Can you get through to Stars Hollow?"_

_Jess paused. "No," he admitted. "But, you know, Luke's a hard person to track down."_

_"Don't try to make it better, Jess. As soon as we can get through to Stars Hollow, then I'll go back."_

_"But I haven't even tried Lor—"_

_"If you can't find Luke, you can't find my mom. Luke's always in the diner, or at our house. Mom's usually at our house, the inn, or the diner. So if you can't find him…"_

_"Okay. Fine. Don't come back."_

_"It's just a little longer."_

_"Right. Well, I'll be back in L.A. in a couple of weeks."_

_"I'll be here."_

_"Okay. I'll talk to you later."_

_"Bye." Rory hung up the phone._

_\--_

"I've missed you," Lorelai said, setting down the scissors and facing her daughter as Rory paused in the story.

"I know. I've missed you, too." Rory smiled at her mother, who smiled back.

"Ah, hell, I haven't hugged you in forever!" Lorelai threw her arms around Rory and they sat there for a minute, just holding each other.

"I love you, Mom," Rory announced over Lorelai's shoulder.

"Oh, I love you, too."

The baby kicked Lorelai's stomach, and she jumped back.

"Whoa. The baby—just kicked his grandmother. Bad baby," Lorelai said with her face at eye-level with Rory's stomach. Then she looked up at Rory and grinned. "The baby just kicked me."

"I know," Rory smiled.

Lorelai put her hand on Rory's stomach and said, "Continue."

"Well, that's pretty much it. Jess and I tried calling you and Luke for a while, and when Jess finally got through to Luke again, I started my long-drive home. And then I finally got ahold of you the other day, and showed up yesterday."

"Wow. And, so you're gonna stop traveling around and move back here?"

"Actually, I've got one more stop I want to make," Rory said, grinning widely. Lorelai grinned back.

"Well, whaddya say you stay one more day—and we can visit his uncle—and tomorrow, you can visit him. Maybe you can fly. You know, leave the awesome convertible here, fly out there, do what you need to do," Lorelai said suggestively—Rory blushed, "and then bring 'im back."

"I hope he comes back."

"Oh, trust me. After hearing that story—he'll come back. Definitely."

Rory smiled.

"So, let's go visit his uncle. Maybe eat…dinner," Lorelai said after glancing at the clock. "God, Rory, you tell long stories."

"It was a long story to tell."

"Aw. Poor little Rory. Let's go to Luke's and refuel." Lorelai stood up and pulled her daughter up beside her.

"Okay," Rory agreed, leaning into Lorelai's shoulder and snaking her arm around her mother's waist.

"Okay," Lorelai whispered back, so very thrilled to be next to her daughter again. She put her own arm around Rory's shoulder, and they walked out of the house, heading towards Luke's.


	13. Six A.M. Flight

Rory and Lorelai made it all the way to the counter in Luke's and were even sitting around for about a minute before anyone noticed that the prodigal daughter of Stars Hollow had returned.

Luke walked up and asked for their order, hardly noticing Rory, or at least not registering the fact that Rory hadn't been home for a very long time, and was now pregnant.

"Two cups of coffee—one of the good kind, one decaf," Lorelai pulled a face, "and two cheeseburgers with chili fries." She turned to Rory. "Sound good?"

Rory nodded.

"You're actually drinking decaf?" Luke asked.

"No, not me, her," Lorelai corrected, pointing to Rory.

"Oh, okay, for Ror—" Luke had started to write the order down, but paused and looked back up with a shocked look on his face. "Rory. You're home." He sounded disbelieving.

Rory, for lack of a better thing to do, just nodded.

"And…you're pregnant," Luke stated, staring at her stomach. Then anger clouded his face and he looked up again with a scowl on his face. "It's not—"

"No," Rory finally spoke. "It's not his. Have you…talked to him lately?"

"Yeah," Luke nodded. "But if it's not his, whose…. Not that bastard you were dating?"

"No." Rory shifted a little as she felt the collective gaze of the town on her. "Listen, can I go upstairs? Maybe…have a little privacy?"

Lorelai, who had also noticed the town staring, nodded. "Yeah. Lemme show her up there, Luke, and if you would please bring our orders when they're up, we'll explain."

Luke nodded, and Lorelai followed Rory quickly up the stairs. Pretty soon, Luke was bombarded with questions, but all he could answer was, "I don't know. She just got home."

After ten minutes he finally made it upstairs, carrying two take-out boxes and two to-go cups, and somehow made it through the door to find Lorelai sprawled dramatically on the couch, a damp washcloth over her eyes.

"Where's Rory?" he asked, setting up the food on the kitchen table.

Lorelai made a show of pushing the washcloth onto her forehead—while Luke rolled his eyes—before finally answering, "She had a slight bout of morning sickness."

Luke just nodded, ignoring the fact that it was after six, and stepped back from the table. "Well, I guess I can go now…."

"No, stay," Rory commanded, walking from the bathroom.

"Oh, sweetie, you okay?" Lorelai asked, immediately in mother mode, as she got up from the couch and walked over to her daughter, who nodded slightly.

"I just wish the morning sickness would go away. I thought it was supposed to let up after the first trimester."

Lorelai shrugged. "He must get that from his father's side of the family."

"Who would be?" Luke asked, intruding on the family moment. Neither girl cared, however, and Rory decided to tell him.

"I was artificially inseminated," she said, just launching directly into the story. "For…many reasons, one of them being Jess."

"And how badly should I hurt him?" Luke asked.

"Don't hurt him. It's not bad, what he did, and I couldn't handle it if you hurt him."

"Speaking of, shouldn't you call the airport and book your flight soon?" Lorelai asked, rubbing a hand on Rory's arm.

"Oh, I should. Luke, can I use your phone?"

Luke nodded and waved vaguely in the direction of the phone; Rory found it quickly and started dialing.

"She's so grown-up," Lorelai observed, standing next to Luke as they both watched Rory on the phone.

"With a baby on the way," Luke added. When Lorelai nodded sadly beside him, he sighed and turned to her. "What exactly has she been doing in the last five months, and where does Jess fit into all this?"

Lorelai smiled tightly. "It's a long story. But, the gist of it is, she's learned that men can't control her life. She's become entirely self-sufficient, and she has fallen head over heels in love, I believe."

"Oh," Luke said softly.

"Yeah. So she's flying out to see him tomorrow, hoping that he comes back."

"He hasn't mentioned anything about her when he calls, other than to ask how you and she are doing."

Lorelai nodded. "He's learned how to censor himself, I think. From what I heard in the story, he's pretty good at molding himself into different characters."

"What  _is_  this story?"

Lorelai just smiled. "I'll tell you after she leaves. Privately."

Luke's cheeks reddened.

"We can't have the town overhearing," Lorelai added, unaware at the drop of Luke's face.

"How is Timmy boy doing, by the way?"

" _Tom_ ," Lorelai stressed for what had to have been the ten thousandth time in the last three weeks they'd been dating. "And I guess he's okay. I've been so caught up in all of Rory's stuff, that it seems like I haven't talked to him for ages."

"Oh. Things going okay for you two?" Luke asked, hoping and cursing himself for doing so.

Lorelai sighed. "You know, I thought they were. But then, I see her," Lorelai waved at Rory, still talking on the phone, "and I see what true love really is, and then I think about Tom, and…realize we don't have any chemistry."

"Ah."

Lorelai turned to Luke and opened her mouth to say something, when Rory interrupted them.

"Okay, I have the first flight out in the morning. Six a.m."

Lorelai blanched. "You're getting up on your own."

"I figured. I also figure that since I had very little sleep last night, I should eat and head off to bed, seeing as I have to be at the airport by four or so."

"I'll drive you," Luke offered suddenly.

"Thank you, Luke. I appreciate that. And you can make me some decaf coffee before we leave, although what good it'd do, I dunno."

"Well, I'll make it anyway." Luke smiled at Rory, who smiled back, before heading to the kitchen table and digging into her food, exclaiming how good it looked. Lorelai stared at Luke with an astonished expression on her face.

"Wow."

"What, Lorelai?" Luke sighed.

"I just…never realized how much you do for us. How much you care for my little girl. Thank you."

Luke blushed. "It's nothing," he said roughly.

"You're blushing!" Lorelai exclaimed, pointing at his face.

"I've gotta get downstairs. When you leave, you can go out the back way, and I'll try to ward off the angry gossip mob."

"You are!" Lorelai yelled, still pointing at his face, a gleeful expression on her own.

"I am not," Luke argued, turning to leave.

"Luke is blushing, Luke is blushing," Lorelai sang as Luke ducked from the room.

"Mom, you could leave him alone every once in a while."

"What's the fun in that?" Lorelai asked, walking over to the table to eat her own food.


	14. The Second Shortest Sleep

Rory's watch alarm went off at two-thirty the next morning, giving her half an hour to get ready before Luke—with two cups of decaf coffee, he promised—was to pick her up. She somehow struggled out of bed, and, on six and a half hours of sleep, dressed and packed a small bag. She had ten minutes to spare, and spent the time picking loved books from her bookcase to read on the long flight.

At two till three, Rory quietly walked out of her bedroom with her one bag and carefully shut the door behind her.

"If the baby's a boy, you should name him Jake Ryan," Lorelai said thoughtfully from behind Rory, causing her to jump ten feet in the air.

"God! Mom! I didn't expect you to be up!"

"Geez, sorry. I would've thought you'd be happy I was seeing you off."

"I am, you just surprised me. It's two till three in the morning."

"I know." Lorelai continued flipping through a magazine while Rory just stared at her. Finally, she looked back up. "Don't look at me like that. I've stayed up later than this."

"Oh," Rory nodded, recognition dawning on her face. "And you've re-watched  _Sixteen Candles_  for the four thousandth time to keep yourself awake."

"Yep!" Lorelai nodded. "How'd ya know?"

"Your choice of opening statement."

"Oh, right." Lorelai grinned. "I like the name Jake Ryan."

"Jake Ryan Gilmore?" Rory said incredulously. Lorelai just continued grinning.

"It's from a John Hughes movie. And besides, Jake was the best guy in all of the movies. He was nice, and cute, and he broke up with his girlfriend for Samantha—on her  _birthday_ ," Lorelai stressed, "and he helped out Farmer Ted, aka The Geek, aka, Anthony Michael Hall, aka, God, he used to be just a geek with really long fingers but he is now a stud with really long fingers and the ability to see flashes of the future on a USA original series based on a Stephen King novel."

Rory nodded. "You certainly get more hyper as the night wears on."

"Uh-huh!" Lorelai exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Well, Mom, I hate to break it to you, but not everything connected with John Hughes is wonderful."

"Uh!" Lorelai protested. "How dare you say that about John Hughes! He's fabulous, and everything connected to him is fabulous!"

" _Home Alone 3_  and  _Maid in Manhattan_ ," Rory offered.

"Ugh." Lorelai pulled a face. "I can see where you're coming from."

"I thought you would."

There was a knock on the front door, and Rory started to get up from the kitchen table, but Lorelai stopped it.

"Wait. Let me get it." She grinned, once again. "I wanna see the look on Luke's face when he sees me up at three in the morning."

"I wanna see it too!" Rory protested, getting from her chair and following her mother to the door.

Luke, standing outside the front door, rolled his eyes as he heard the girls argue all the way to the door. When their walking slowed and their conversation quickened, he knocked again, startling both women so they each uttered an "Oh!"

Finally, though, Lorelai pulled the door open, a grin on her face, Rory at her shoulder. Luke gave her his "You're absolutely crazy, Lorelai Gilmore" face, and then said to Rory, "You ready to go?"

Rory nodded, and Lorelai moved so her daughter could walk onto the porch.

"Bye, Mom," Rory said, wrapping her arms around her mother as well she could while carrying a bag. Luke, noticing the awkwardness of the hug, tugged the bag from her hand, allowing mother and daughter to get a firm hold of each other.

"Call me when you get to the airport," Lorelai commanded over Rory's shoulder. "And when you get to the gate. And when you get on the plane. And after you get off the plane. And after you make it to Venice Beach. And after you find him. And after you talk to him. And—"

"Lorelai! We're gonna be late!" Luke exclaimed.

"Oh, sorry!" Lorelai gave Rory another quick squeeze and a peck on the cheek, and then finally released her.

"Bye, Mom," Rory tried again, this time waving and walking down the porch steps at the same time.

"Bye, Rory," Lorelai called back, waving and leaning on the doorjamb.

"Let me take my bag," Rory commanded as Luke caught up to her walking to the truck parked on the street.

"No, let me carry it. You're…in no condition to carry the bag."

Rory thought about protesting, but decided that she'd let Luke baby her and carry her bag. As they settled into Luke's truck, she waved at Lorelai again, and continued waving until they were too far down the street to see the house anymore.

Lorelai waved until the truck disappeared in the distance, and then turned right around and went right back upstairs, dragging the phone into bed with her and using it almost as a pillow.

Two minutes into the half hour drive to Hartford, Luke tried to break the silence.

"Uh. So. You're going to see Jess?"

"Yep," Rory nodded.

"Right," Luke nodded, too. "Uh…."

"You know, Luke, we don't have to talk. We can turn on the radio."

"Oh, that's good." Luke said in relief as he reached down and turned the radio on. He spun the tuner dial around and around, not able to find anything and keep his eye on the dark road in front of him.

"I'll get it," Rory offered, reaching to take over the dial spinning. He nodded in appreciation and turned his full attention on the road. Rory bypassed a few songs she really liked, knowing that Luke wouldn't like them, and stopped completely when a very familiar song came on. "Oh, my God! It's Lane's band!" she exclaimed, pointing to the radio excitedly. "It's Lane's band!" She turned to Luke.

"Really?" Luke asked. "Wow."

"God. I heard them when I was in Seattle, but…I guess it's really only seeming real now that I'm closer to home."

"Oh," Luke said, wondering what Rory was doing in Seattle.

"I haven't talked to her in forever. I should call her. Although not now, 'cause I have no idea where she is, how to reach her, or what time it is there."

"Right," Luke nodded.

The song faded out, and the deejay started talking about the band. "Killer song, huh? Well, the lead guitarist and drummer are making headlines again, after the drummer used the lead guitarist's credit card to buy a book entitled, The Lifetime Book of Wedding Planning. My wife used that book, and Lifetime almost asked us to be in their June wedding special. So, if I were you, I'd expect an appearance by Lane Kim and Dave Rygalski on Lifetime's wedding special, come June. Up next…."

The deejay faded off as Rory stared at the radio in shock. "Wow."

"Yeah."

"Big news," Rory said, pointing to the radio and looking at Luke again. "Don't you think it's big news?"

"Well, you've got big news, too," Luke said, his eyes darting to Rory's stomach and then back to the road.

"Yeah, I guess so," Rory half-smiled, settling her hands on her stomach. Then her baby kicked, and she gasped and reached for Luke's hand. "He's kicking!" she exclaimed, pulling Luke's hand from the steering wheel and putting it over the spot the baby had just kicked. Luke sat at an awkward position, even more awkward since this was Rory, but all his uncomfortable thoughts flew out the window when the baby kicked his palm.

"Wow," he said. "That's…amazing."

"I know!" Rory squealed and released Luke's hand, who placed it back on the steering wheel somewhat reluctantly. Then a thought hit him.

"Jess knows about the kid, right?"

"Yeah," Rory nodded. "He was the one who helped me look at my pregnancy tests. And I called him every time I couldn't get through to Mom and something was happening, like after I got my first sonogram."

"Huh," was the only thing Luke could muster up. Well, well, well. Jess was sweet underneath that tough-boy exterior.

Luke realized what he'd just thought, and gave himself a disgusted look. He'd thought the word "sweet" about Jess. He didn't think he'd ever associate that word with anything other than food and ice tea.

"Hey, Luke?" Rory's voice broke Luke from his thoughts. "I think I'm gonna try to get a little sleep. Wake me when we get to the airport, okay?"

Luke nodded, and she nodded back, and leaned her head against the glass of the window.

She was asleep within seconds, and awoken seconds after that by Luke's hand gently shaking her shoulder.

"Rory. Rory. We're here."

"Oh!" she snapped awake, anticipation growing in the pit of her stomach and swirling like so many butterflies.

Luke climbed from the car, carrying Rory's bag, and then opened her door for her. She graciously used his hand to step onto the curb, and he handed her bag to her.

"Thanks," she said.

"You're welcome. Uh, are you good from here?"

"I'm good from here," Rory nodded, and after a second's pause, threw her arms around Luke. "Thanks," she whispered again.

He nodded against her shoulder. "I'm proud of you," he whispered, before letting go and walking back around the car quickly. He waved as he got back into the truck, and Rory waved back as he drove the car away. She smiled, slightly, at the thought that his eyes had sparkled with tears as he'd ended their hug.

"Just like a dad," she murmured, wondering over the fact that she hadn't seen her dad in over a year, longer than she'd talked to Lorelai, but he didn't seem to be worrying that much about her—she'd sent him a card at Christmas, and apparently that had contented him enough that he hadn't even noticed her birthday.

Rory shook her head and walked into Hartford Airport, intending to get her boarding pass and then find some more coffee, and maybe some breakfast.


	15. The Second Retelling

"No, Mom, I really have to go now," Rory protested into the phone, standing at gate C5, waiting to board her non-stop plane to L.A.

"But, wait, you didn't say what you thought about the name—"

" _This is the final boarding call for flight 557 nonstop to Los Angeles._ " A disembodied voice in the airport cut Lorelai off.

"Mom, seriously, that's my flight! The final boarding call! I love you, I'll call when we land, bye!"

"Love you, too, bye," Lorelai got out as Rory pressed the end button on her cell phone and showed her boarding pass and ID to the way-too-peppy stewardess, who just continued grinning and waved Rory on board.

Rory hurried down the boarding ramp and onto the plane. Another way-too-peppy—especially at six in the morning—stewardess waved Rory into the coach area, and she found her seat: 17A, a window seat. She scooted in and settled down, stuffing her one bag below the seat in front of her. She didn't think she was going to have a seat mate, but then a woman with long dirty blonde hair fell into the seat next to her, sighed happily, and gestured to Rory's bag.

"You need to put that bag in the overhead compartment. It doesn't comply with the rules of below the seat storage."

"Paris?" Rory asked, finally getting a good look at the woman when she recognized the voice.

"Yes?" Paris asked, looking up from where she was meticulously placing her below the seat bag below the seat in front of her. "Rory?"

"Wow." Rory shook her head. "This is too freaky."

"I agree. I…haven't heard from you in a very long time. You just disappeared one day."

"I know," Rory nodded, pulling a few books from her carry on bag.

"I took notes for your classes for about a week, but after that…I figured you were gone."

"Uh-huh," Rory nodded again, still not looking at Paris.

"Why'd you leave? I mean, your mom kept calling, and I didn't know what to tell her."

"It's a long story," Rory offered as a non-explanation for the second time.

"You've got an entire non-stop flight to L.A.," Paris said.

"Right. First, can you put this in the overhead compartment?" Rory handed her carry on bag to Paris, who got out of her seat and obliged, before sitting back down and staring at Rory.

"Talk."

"Okay. But it's long," Rory warned.

"You've said that already. I don't care. I was…worried about you." Paris shifted slightly with the all too revealing comment.

"That's really nice of you, Paris," Rory said softly.

"Uh-huh," Paris shifted again, looking only at the seat in front of her, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Okay. Since you asked. It all started on my mom's birthday…."

\--

"Wow," was the first word Paris muttered at the end of the story. "That's…quite a story."

Rory nodded and stuffed another pretzel in her mouth. "And the thing it's really taught me is to be independent, basically. Especially of men."

"I knew that Mark was bad news the second I met him."

"I should have paid more attention to you. And my mom, and Lane." Rory sighed. "I was such an idiot."

"I've seen it happen before. Girls always fall all over themselves whenever a cute guy's around."

"Yeah. But, you know, looking back, he wasn't that cute."

"Hindsight's 20/20," Paris offered, making Rory feel a little better.

"Thanks, Paris." Rory ate one last pretzel, and then looked sadly at the tiny empty bag. Without being asked, Paris handed over her two unopened bags of pretzels. "Thanks!" Rory exclaimed.

"I can't have too much salt, or I break out in hives," Paris offered as an explanation, and then glanced at Rory's stomach, as she had been doing regularly since Rory had told her about the doctor's appointment. "Besides, you're eating for two, now."

"Uh-huh," Rory agreed, finishing off the first bag of pretzels and ripping into the second one. "So, why are you flying to L.A.?" Rory had finished the story with her reasons for going to L.A.

"I live there," Paris offered. "I was in Hartford visiting my parents."

"Ah. So, what're you doing, now that you've actually graduated from college?"

"I'm a scientist. Cancer research."

"Oh, like you always wanted, right?"

"Yeah," Paris nodded, and then trailed off. "Uh, Rory?" she asked after a minute.

"Hmm?"

"Are you really going to L.A. to tell Jess you love him?"

"Well…yeah."

"After that whole story you just told me?"

"Well, Jess helped me get through everything, and he's been nothing but supportive ever since I told him I was pregnant."

"And you think he loves you?"

"Actually…I dunno. Mom seems to think he does, but Luke—his uncle—doesn't think so, even if Luke does think Jess  _used_  to love me." Rory sighed. "I don't think I've thought this whole thing through."

"Well, even if he doesn't  _love you_  love you, he certainly likes you a whole helluva lot."

"I know. Maybe I won't mention love. At least, not at first."

"That's probably a good idea," Paris nodded, and then turned to her laptop, to do a little work. Rory nodded, reassuring herself, before opening a book and beginning to read.

\--

"Well, this was actually a rather pleasant air travel experience," Paris remarked as she and Rory walked to the baggage claim in LAX.

"I agree," Rory said. "I've missed you."

"I…I've missed you, too." Paris admitted.

Rory grinned and hugged Paris. "I'll call you."

Paris awkwardly patted Rory's back. "And if you don't, I'll call your mother."

"Okay," Rory nodded, letting go of Paris, who sighed in relief. "Well, I don't actually have to claim anything, so I should get going."

"Sure. I'll…talk to you soon."

"Bye, Paris," Rory smiled, waved, and disappeared into the crowd. Paris half-smiled after her, glad to have her friend back.

Rory reached into her bag for the paper Luke had given her, with Jess' dad's address on it. She located the paper and reread the address for the thousandth time. Figuring it was farther west, near the beach, she headed to the car rental place to get a car.


	16. 422

Rory eased the rental car to a stop at a curb. Staring at the wooden fence adorned with flowers, she slowly exited the car and walked up to the number posted on the arch.

"422," she murmured, before pulling the paper from her bag and checking the numbers again. "Yep. This is it." She tucked her short hair behind her ears a few times, situated her bag better in her hand, and ran her free hand over her stomach once, for good luck. Like a Buddha, she thought with a half smile on her face. She walked under the arch and started down the cement walkway, but it was too dark and looked like the front door were never used, so she scooted around the corner, to what must have been the back. A small gate, again with the number 422 posted on it, led the way into the backyard, and Rory would have opened it, but a large group of what must have been ten dogs started barking at her. A woman standing on the roof yelled down to her.

"You selling something?"

"Uh, no," Rory started, stumbling over her words. "I'm, uh, looking for, uh, Jess." Rory cursed herself for injecting 'uh' into her speech—she hated that.

"Mariano?" the woman asked, shading her eyes from the sun.

"Yeah. I mean, I know he doesn't live here anymore, but I was told his father lived here, and that he knew how to reach Jess."

The woman nodded, slowly. "Is that his baby?" she asked, pointing.

"Uh," Rory glanced down, and covered her stomach protectively with both hands. "Yes," she said, and then shrugged. Might as well lie. She figured that was the only way this woman would let her in, and tell her where Jess was.

"Come on in," the woman nodded, and then disappeared. Rory figured that she was coming back to earth, and edged into the backyard, petting the heads of a few of the dogs as she went by. The woman suddenly appeared, through yet another archway, and introduced herself.

"I'm Sasha."

"I'm Rory."

"Come on in, I'll call Jess and see if he can come over."

"Oh, if you'd just give me the address, I'd appreciate that. He doesn't have to come over."

"Nonsense. You're pregnant; I've been pregnant, and if at any point you can stay in one place, you should do that. Sit." Sasha gestured to the couch in the living room, and Rory nodded and settled onto the couch. She heard Sasha dial, and then start a conversation with what Rory supposed was Baylor.

After a minute, a teenaged girl, wearing very think glasses and a baseball cap that read, "Dante's Inferno Hot Dogs", wandered into the room and sat in a chair opposite Rory, reading the entire time. Taking her cue, Rory dug in her bag for the book she'd started on the plane, and began reading herself.

"He's coming right over," Sasha announced, walking into the room.

"Oh, good," Rory said, putting the book away. "Did you tell him I was here?"

"No. I told him Lily wanted to see him."

"And Lily would be?" Rory asked. Sasha pointed to the teenager as she raised her hand. "Ah," Rory nodded.

"So, Lil, whaddya think about pizza for dinner?" Sasha asked. Lily nodded, and then stood up and wandered off. "And what about you?" Sasha turned to Rory. "Are you staying for dinner?"

"Uh, I don't know," Rory faltered. "It depends on what happens after Jess gets here, I guess."

"Of course," Sasha nodded, and then started back out of the room. "Holler if you need anything. I'll tell you when he gets here."

"Okay," Rory called back, before turning back to her book.

"Hey, Sash," she heard Jess greet five minutes later, and she stiffened in nervous anticipation. "Where's Lil?"

"In her closet," Sasha answered, pointing through the living room.

"No need to point anymore, I sort of know my way around by now."

"Right. Of course."

Jess nodded and started into the living room, stopping when he noticed a very familiar—yet unfamiliar for Jimmy and Sasha's house—woman sitting on the couch.

"Rory?" he asked disbelievingly. She looked up from her book, directly into his eyes.

"Hi, Jess."

"Hi," Jess said back, sliding onto the couch next to Rory, facing her. "Uh, what're you doing here?"

"Well, I guess I'm here to talk to you," Rory said lamely, pointing to Jess as she finished, as if to prove her point.

"Uh-huh," Jess nodded, his gaze settling on the couch next to her. "Wow. You look…pregnant."

"Yep," Rory answered, her hands automatically flying to her stomach. "I kinda told Sasha it was yours."

"That's probably the only reason she let you in."

"I figured," Rory half-laughed, and then gasped as her baby kicked her squarely in the palm. She grabbed Jess' hand, much like she'd grabbed Luke's hand earlier that day. "He's kicking! He's kicking, Jess!"

"Wow," Jess commented, much like Luke had done earlier, only instead of moving his hand away when Rory released it, he moved his other one to her stomach, too. "That's so weird."

"I know," Rory said. "God, he's really active."

"Is it a he?"

"Mmm, I dunno. I have yet to work up the nerve to find out."

"Right, you mentioned that the last time we talked."

Rory nodded again, and bit her lip, keeping her hands on her stomach. Jess took in her thrilled expression, and wondered once again what she was doing there.

"Rory, why didn't you mention you were coming here the last time we talked?"

"Because, I was driving to Stars Hollow, to see Mom."

"Oh, was she there?"

"Yeah, and I told her the whole story. Telling the story to someone kinda made me appreciate what you did a lot more, and then Mom basically convinced me to fly out here, so…here I am."

"Huh." Jess slowly moved his hands away from Rory's stomach, where the activity had died down, but kept his eyes on Rory's face, who eventually returned her gaze to Jess'.

"Jess?" she asked, as if to get his attention, even though they were staring straight into each other's eyes.

"Hmm?" he asked back.

"Do you think that you could come back to Stars Hollow with me?"

Jess broke the gaze first, ducking his head in response to her question, causing her to backpedal.

"I mean, you don't have to," Rory started, gazing down at her hands lying in her lap. "And, it's not like I was really expecting you to move back with me. I mean, you hardly stayed for two years, you know, cause you didn't like it. And you've got a home here, and apparently a family, and a job, I guess, if your movie's still on schedule, and—"

"Rory, you're babbling," Jess interrupted her.

"I know. I mean, I usually babble when I'm nervous. Although, I don't know why I'm nervous now. I mean, I do know, but I don't…know. I mean…." Rory sighed, and then looked up at Jess, who had an amused look on his face. "Oh, I'm glad you think this is funny! I'm trying to pour my heart out to you here, and you're just sitting there with that stupid look on your face, and I mean, God, you could be a little more sensitive—I am pregnant, in case you hadn't noticed, and my hormones are doing weird things, and I don't even  _wanna_  think about what my feelings are doing, and—"

Jess cut her off again, this time with a kiss. She struggled for a second, and then sank into it, giving her all.

Sasha walked in, to announce something, but noticed the young couple and smiled, walking back out of the room.

Eventually, Jess had to separate, if only to get his heart back to normal, and looked nervously at Rory's face, hoping she wasn't too mad. From the way she'd responded to the kiss, he didn't think so, but you could never tell.

"Well. That was nice," Rory grinned at him. "And just what I came here to do."

"You came here to kiss me?" Jess asked.

"Uh-huh," Rory nodded. " _And_ , to ask you to move back to Stars Hollow with me. You know, I mean, not that you have to think about this right now, but I  _am_  pregnant, and eventually I will have a baby, and I love my mother to death, but I don't really want to rely on her for help with my baby, and it's not like I can ask the father, and you seem so interested in everything, and I think I'm kind of getting ahead of myself now, and—"

"You're babbling again," Jess interrupted her, before kissing her again.

After they separated the second time, she said, "I like the second way of interrupting better."

"I do, too," Jess answered, leaning in to kiss her again.


	17. The First Mentions of...You Know...the "L" Word

"I need to use the phone," Rory said sheepishly as she and Jess separated from their thousandth reunion kiss.

"Ask Sasha," Jess said, waving vaguely towards the kitchen. Rory nodded, kissed Jess quickly on the cheek, and walked into the kitchen, to see Sasha leaning on the counter, flipping through a magazine.

"Uh, can I use your phone? It's long distance."

"Sure." Sasha handed the phone to Rory and watched as she dialed.

"Luke? Hi, it's me. I know Mom's sitting right there at the counter. Can I talk to her?" Rory rolled her eyes at Sasha as Luke started to ask her questions. "No, it was a good flight. Yeah, I found him. He was happy.  _Is_  happy." Rory smiled a goofy smile. "I'll have to see if he comes back with me. Yeah, well, I'm using his dad's phone, so I should probably talk to Mom. Thanks. Hey, Mom?"

Sasha wandered out of the kitchen and settled herself sideways on the arm of the couch, where Jess was still sitting, staring off into space with a happy look on his face.

"It's not your kid, is it?"

"Huh?" Jess asked, looking up at Sasha.

"Her kid. It's not yours."

"No," Jess shook his head. "You're always right, Sasha. Jimmy and I both kinda hate you for it."

"Yeah, I know. So, you know it's not your kid, and you still kiss her?"

Jess shrugged. "She's not with anyone. The father isn't involved at all. We have a history, chemistry,  _and_ mutual attraction. Therefore, I'm the best candidate for her boyfriend."

"Why isn't the father involved?"

"You know, curiosity killed the cat."

"You know, clichés seriously aren't your thing."

"I know. You should let her tell you why the father isn't involved. I don't know if she wants me spreading it around."

Sasha nodded. "I'll do that."

"I'm gonna go find Lily," Jess announced, standing up from the couch. Sasha watched him walk from the room, and then she made her way back to the kitchen, where Rory was sitting at the table, laughing into the phone.

"Mom! But, yeah. You know, we always were good in that department." She paused to listen to something her mother said, and then blushed. "God, no! I've never done that. With  _anyone_. No, I don't care if I'm an adult. Besides, it'd seem really weird, now that I'm…. Mom! No, I can't talk to you anymore. Your mind's completely in the gutter, and crazier than it's ever been. Yeah, I'll call when I know our plans. I promise I'll call. Mom—I swear." Rory sighed, and then lifted her right hand. "I swear on all that is good, holy, and chocolate, that I will call my mother, Lorelai Gilmore, within the next twelve hours, and before, if, and when, anything big happens. There. You happy?" Rory lowered her hand. "Yeah. I love ya too. Talk to you later." She hung up the phone and gave a sigh of relief.

"Talkative mother?" Sasha asked. Rory nodded. "Yeah, I'm one of those."

Rory laughed. Jess wandered into the kitchen, Rory's bag over his shoulder.

"Hey, listen Sash, I think I'm gonna go ahead and take Rory over to the Inferno for dinner," he announced, reaching for Rory's hand with one of his.

"Oh, okay. I guess I'll talk to you later."

"Sure. Bye." Jess led Rory out of the house, and they were grinning at each other the entire time. Sasha watched them go, and then headed into Jimmy's study to find Lily.

\--

"I'm so glad you didn't just laugh in my face or something," Rory said as she and Jess walked through Jimmy and Sasha's backyard to the street.

"Why would I do that? Seriously, Rory, you underestimate yourself, and…my feelings for you." Jess blushed slightly, and then changed the subject. "Do you want to walk to the Inferno, or do you have a car?"

"I have a car, but let's go ahead and walk. Jess—"

"Sure." Jess interrupted Rory, still avoiding the subject. "Let me put your bag in the car, though."

"Okay."

Jess nodded and put the bag in the trunk when Rory opened it for him.

"Jess. Talk to me," she pleaded as he tried to start walking. "How do I underestimate your feelings?"

Jess kept his eyes focused on the sidewalk, until Rory gripped both sides of his face with her hands and forced him to look her straight in the eye.

"Jess."

"I…think I love you."

"I love you, too." Rory said immediately, causing Jess to look up in surprise.

"You do?"

"Yeah. You've been there for me…lots of times, and you always seem to look out for my health and well being before your own. Well, most of the time."

"Yeah." Jess nodded. "So…what now?"

"Now? Now we go get dinner. I'm famished."

Jess grinned, grabbed her hand again, and they walked off.

\--

"So, no one's heard from this Mike guy—"

"Mark," Lorelai corrected Luke. He just shook his head dismissively.

"Whatever. No one's heard from him for a month now?"

"Yep. He's completely disappeared. Rory said that Jess said that Tristan said that the CIA is working overtime to find him, cause he knows lots of very top secret stuff, and he could be using that to help any number of enemy countries."

Luke nodded. "But, still, Rory hasn't spoken to him in five months, and there's no evidence that he even cares where she is anymore. Right?"

Lorelai nodded. "She's apparently off the hook. Which is good, cause this means her life might be able to return to normal."

"God. You're right. She  _is_  grown-up."

"And it's scary as hell."

"You know, I look at her, and I can still see the little six-year-old, sitting on a stool at the counter, begging for another cup of coffee."

Lorelai grinned at the memory. "She always was like a little version of me."

"I'm still having trouble figuring out if that's good or bad."

"Why, Luke, I'm surprised." Lorelai smiled, almost mischievously. "What would be good about it?"

"Self-sufficient. You are so strong." Luke said slowly. "You came to this town as a seventeen-year-old, and you worked your way from a maid at the Inn, living in a tool shed, to the owner of your own Inn, the owner of your own house, with a daughter who went to Yale, and is rapidly becoming self-sufficient herself."

Lorelai breathed in, slowly, deeply, and clamped her eyes closed, to keep the happy tears from falling. "That means so much coming from you."

"I mean every word."

Lorelai grinned as the first tear fell, and then laughed. "God. I'm bawling like a baby, cause you complimented me." She laughed again, standing up from her kitchen table and going over to the roll of paper towels on the counter. The she turned back around, to face Luke again. "Those were very sweet words."

"Don't ever call me sweet again."

"You're just an old softie."

"Lorelai…" Luke said in his warning tone. She laughed.

\--

"Lee, two everything hot dogs," Jess said to the redhead behind the counter of Dante's Inferno. Lee nodded, and started fixing the order. "You know where Jimmy is?"

"I think he took his break in the bookstore."

"He took a break?" Jess raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, it shocked me, too." Lee shrugged, and then handed the hot dogs to Jess.

"Thanks," Jess nodded and handed one to Rory, who took it with glee.

"You remembered how I like my hot dogs!" she exclaimed, biting into it.

"Yeah, cause it's so hard to remember 'everything'," Jess rolled his eyes and started leading Rory by the hand to a bookstore on the boardwalk.

"So, we're going to see your dad?"

Jess shrugged. "You've met his girlfriend; might as well meet him." Then he grinned at the look on Rory's face. "And besides, he's heard a lot about you."

"Really?" she grinned back.

"Yep."

"Good."


	18. The Endings of a Few Things

"So, do you think your dad'll like me?" Rory asked Jess. He nodded.

"He might think you're insane for loving Ayn Rand and hating Ernest Hemingway, but he'll like you all the same."

Rory tried to hit Jess, but she didn't have any free hands, as one was holding a hot dog and the other was being gripped in a death hold by Jess, so she bumped him softly with the side of her body. He grinned, and they stopped at a bench outside a bookstore, as Jimmy was sitting there, reading.

"Jimmy," Jess said as a greeting. Jimmy nodded without looking up from his book.

"Jess."

"There's someone I want you to meet."

Jimmy looked up. "Hey!" He jumped up and offered his hand to Rory. "I'm guessing you're—" he stopped himself, as he noticed her stomach. "Pregnant." He finished.

"It's not mine," Jess said quickly.

"It's not his," Rory said at the same time.

"Okay. It's not Jess'. Yet your hands are glued together. Reason?"

"The father's a deadbeat," Jess offered.

"Jess!" Rory scolded. "We don't know that. I was artificially inseminated."

"Okay. Any particular reason?"

"I wanted to get away from my spy boyfriend."

"Ah. And you're from what soap opera?"

Rory laughed. "I know it sounds unbelievable, but, believe me. It's true."

"Okay. Anyway, you're Rory."

Rory looked at Jess with a surprised look on her face and nodded. "And you're Jimmy."

"Right in one. So. What are you doing here?"

"Taking Jess back to Stars Hollow with me."

"Uh-huh. And you're going?"

Jess glanced at Rory, and then nodded. "Yep."

"That's good. How?"

"Plane," Rory said automatically.

"Yeah. She's got my car."

"Okay. So when're you planning on taking this plane across the country?"

"I don't know," Jess said, glancing at Rory. "Whaddya think?"

"I was thinking," Rory started slowly. "That we'd buy the tickets for as soon as possible, because Mom's kind of impatient."

"Lorelai? Impatient? Impossible."

"Personally, I think it's one of her better qualities."

"Really?"

"No. But, she's not here to defend herself, so I'll do it."

"You're a good daughter."

"Thank you."

"Okay, hi!" Jimmy yelled, breaking into the couple's conversation. "It's getting dark. If you want to leave as soon as possible, you should probably get tickets as soon as possible. And then you have to figure out where you're going to stay until you use said tickets."

"My place?" Jess asked.

"What about Baylor?" Jimmy pointed out.

Jess shook his head. "She's got a new girlfriend, and she's been hanging out with her almost every night."

"I'm sure you use the term 'hanging out' loosely."

"Very," Jess nodded.

"Well, looks like you've got everything figured out."

"Yep," Jess smiled at Rory, who smiled back.

Jimmy glanced at his watch. "Well, I've gotta get back to the Inferno. Tell Luke hi for me, and call Sasha when you get there, cause I know she's gonna get mad at me if I don't say that."

"Of course."

"Okay. Bye." Jimmy walked off. Rory turned to Jess.

"Baylor's got a girlfriend?"

"Oh, didn't I mention that?" Jess grinned.

\--

"Lukey," Lorelai whined into the phone.

"Don't call me that!" Luke hissed.

"Where is she? She hasn't called me in  _for_ ever."

"She called you at the diner. I was here. It was four hours ago."

"Yeah.  _Four_  whole hours!"

"Stop whining."

"Never. Admit it. You're worried, too."

"I'm not worried," Luke said defensively.

"Yes, you are." Lorelai's voice started to take on a teasing tone. "You are worried, cause you know that Rory's three thousand miles away…with Jess…probably  _alo_ —"

"Stop!" Luke commanded.

"Hah! I  _knew_  it! You know how I knew it? Cause I'm smart. So very smart, so very very smart—"

"Lorelai," Luke interrupted, "do you have call waiting?"

"Uh…no?"

"Well, how do you know that Rory isn't trying to call you right now?"

"Uh, uh, uh," Lorelai stalled.

"So you should hang up. In case she's calling."

"But, but, but," Lorelai stammered.

"Goodbye, Lorelai." Luke grinned and hung up, knowing that he'd caught her in a corner. He was standing up from his kitchen table when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Come over here and keep me company! I don't know when she's going to call, and I'm lonely."

Luke sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose; he had a headache, and her name was Lorelai.

"Please?"

Luke could hear her pouting across the phone. He sighed again. "Fine. But I can't promise that I won't be boring."

"Yay!" Lorelai yelled, ignoring his second sentence. "Bring coffee, and doughnuts."

When Luke sighed again, Lorelai hung up and grinned.

\--

Rory was curled up underneath Jess' covers, in his bed, trying to sleep. She'd been trying to sleep for over an hour, but had yet to actually drift off. The door was ajar, and soft yellow light was spilling into the room, distracting her.

Finally, she threw the covers aside and fell out of bed—gracefully, somehow. She wondered at the new weight her stomach was starting to add to her, and shuffled into Jess' living room.

Jess was sprawled on the couch, one arm thrown back behind his head, over the couch arm, and his other arm trailing on the floor. A reading lamp was on behind his head, and a book was laid on his chest. He was snoring.

Rory grinned, remembering when Lorelai had told her that Jess snored, and then walked over to the couch. Jess looked far from cold, wearing a sweater and jeans, so she didn't get the chance to cover him with a blanket, like she'd seen in so many movies. Instead, she lowered her head to kiss him softly on the lips, while reaching to turn the lamp off.

She must have miscalculated, because the next thing she knew, she was lying half on the couch, half on the floor, her arm thrown up much like Jess', and her chin resting in the middle of his chest.

Jess awoke with a shock.

"Rory!" he said, surprised.

"Hi," she said sheepishly, trying to push herself off of the floor, and not succeeding. Jess put one of his hands on each of her arms and lifted her off of the floor and him at the same time.

"What are you doing?" he asked, sitting up and scooting over, so she could settle onto the couch next to him.

"I can't sleep," she explained, leaning her head onto his shoulder. He moved, slightly, and she dropped her head into his lap, and then swung her feet over the arm of the couch. "Excited, I guess," she said, looking up into Jess' face.

"Oh, really? About what?" He smirked.

"'Bout our flight, I suppose."

"Yeah. You know, you should really try to get some sleep; you've got to wake up in three hours."

"Mm-hmm," Rory nodded sleepily, closing her eyes. "We leave at ten."

"That's right. And we should be at the airport at eight."

Rory murmured in affirmation, half-asleep now.

"And we can't be late," Jess whispered.

"You rhymed," Rory pointed out, before yawning and turning over on her side.

"Rory? You can't go to sleep here."

"Yes, I can."

"Argumentative even while asleep."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh." Jess tried to sit Rory up, so he could stand. "Come on. Let's get you to bed."

"Are you trying to take advantage of me?" she asked, standing next to him and leaning into his body.

"Of course not," Jess said as he led Rory to his room.

"Good."

"Good." Jess settled Rory into his bed, and she snuggled his arm against the pillow. He tried to move. "Uh, Rory?"

"Stay," she whispered.

"I can't. I have to go…sleep on the couch."

"Mm-mm." Rory shook her head. "Stay."

Jess sighed.

"Lay down!" Rory commanded as sharply as she could in half-sleep, and pulled Jess down. He fell to his knees on the floor. "Stay," she said, opening her eyes to look directly into his. He slipped off his shoes and slid under the covers with her. "Good," she grinned and snuggled up next to him. He wrapped his arms around her.

"I love you," he murmured.

"Don't snore," she commanded.

Jess sighed. "Yes, ma'am."

"And I love you, too."

Jess grinned.

\--

Luke jerked awake. He didn't realize where he was at first, but then noticed that Lorelai was leaning on his shoulder. They were sitting on the floor in front of her couch; the coffee table was covered with the remains of Lorelai's junk food binge; the TV was blaring something about an "Ultra AbBuster Rolling Machine!" way too loudly. And sun was pouring in through the living room windows. Luke checked the clock on the VCR. 9:30.

"Lorelai. Lorelai!" Luke started to shake her.

"But I wanted the  _white_  chocolate," she whined.

"God, she even whines about food in her sleep." Luke said to himself.

"I do not," Lorelai protested.

"Lorelai! You're up! It's after nine, and we're both late for work."

"It's after nine?" Lorelai checked the VCR clock. "Shit! It's after nine!" Lorelai jumped up from the floor and sprinted upstairs. "Just let yourself out! But first, brew coffee!" she yelled from her room.

"You don't need it!" Luke yelled back, before exiting the house, leaving Lorelai to argue with herself about whether or not she needed coffee.

Luke practically ran into an unfamiliar guy as he ran down Lorelai's front walk. "Sorry," he yelled, jumping into his truck and starting it before he even closed the door.

Tom shook his head at the strange man exiting his girlfriend's house at nine in the morning, and rang her doorbell.

"What? Did you come back to yell at me about coff—" Lorelai pulled the door open and broke off, realizing that Tom was standing in front of her, instead of Luke. "Tom! Hi!"

"Hi. Who was—"

Lorelai sighed, cutting him off. The truth was, she didn't like Tom that much anymore. He didn't live in Stars Hollow, and she didn't see any reason why she couldn't lie. "I don't want to lie to you, Tom, but I hate the fact that you found out like this."

"Okay." Tom said hesitantly.

Lorelai sighed again, milking this for all it was worth. "The truth is…that man…is my," Lorelai paused dramatically for a few beats; apparently a few beats too long, because Tom started yelling "Who? Who? Who?" sounding like a goddamn owl in Lorelai's opinion.

"My husband," she finally snapped, and then congratulated herself silently on a job well done. "And…we have an open marriage," she said after a moment's thought, remembering a  _Dawson's Creek_ episode in which that happened.

"Well. I'm not sure I want an open relationship," Tom protested. Lorelai nodded, slowly, as if thinking it over, while really thinking about how clingy Tom was. She hated that.

"Right. Well, I don't think this relationship's gonna work. So, I'm sorry, but I'll see ya later. You know, I think I'll give him a nice surprise tonight." Lorelai thought out loud. When Tom cleared his throat, she pretended to come back to earth with a jump. "Oh! I forgot you were there. Well, bye." Lorelai slammed the door in Tom's face, feeling a little sorry about the look on it, but actually not caring either way. The man was clingy, a bore, and used air quotes  _way_  too much.

The phone rang, and Lorelai jumped to answer it.

\--

Jess made sure Rory was comfortable, and had all of her books, before standing up in the aisle of the airplane to shove both of their bags into the overhead storage bin. He then sat back in his seat and reached out his hand, to get his book from Rory. She just shook her head, already reading it. Jess sighed and reached to grab it. She shielded it from him with her body.

"Rory," he complained.

She shushed him and handed him one of her books.

"Rory, I was really looking forward to that book."

"Well, now I'm reading it. So too bad." Rory turned and stuck her tongue out at him. He sighed and opened her book. She grinned when she noticed him reading her book, and then leaned her back into his shoulder. He let her keep for position for only a minute before he grabbed his book from her hands. "Hey!" she exclaimed.

"I'll read A Walk to Remember another time." Then he stuck his tongue out at her.

She laughed and opened the book, admitting defeat.


End file.
